Garrett Andrews//October 5, 2015//
Multnomah County is looking for subcontractors for the upcoming $250 million Central Courthouse project.
The project team on Friday will hold an outreach event from 9 a.m. to noon at Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs‘ office, at 731 N. Hayden Meadows Drive. Officials representing the county, design firm SRG Partnership and general contractor Hoffman Construction will be present.
The project was launched in 2013 and is in the design phase. Structural problems with the century-old courthouse building, located at 1021 S.W. Fourth Ave., helped kick-start the replacement effort. The facility’s unreinforced masonry walls do not meet current seismic codes, according to the county. Another issue is inadequate lobby space, which regularly leads to long lines extending outside of the building.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2017, with a functional courthouse expected to open by 2020. The building will be constructed on county-owned land at either the Hawthorne bridgehead south site block (the county’s preference), or Block 128 between KOIN Tower and a Marriott hotel.
The future of the current building is uncertain. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places and its demolition has drawn opposition from preservationists.