At the finish line: Hidalgo Co. officials show off new courthouse occupancy certificate

EDINBURG — Nearly four years after its builders projected it to reach “substantial completion,” the new Hidalgo County Courthouse is at last tangibly close to opening its doors to the public.

Earlier this week, county officials announced that the facility had received a certificate of occupancy from the city of Edinburg’s inspectors, marking the reaching of the first concrete milestone toward the building’s opening.

And now, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards — the state regulator responsible for ensuring the courthouse’s prisoner detention facilities are also up to snuff — is slated to conduct an inspection of its own next Tuesday.

Once the jail commission gives its stamp of approval, the county will be able to begin planning the move-in process, as well as the demolition of the current courthouse.

For Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez, opening day of the $190 million courthouse is on the near horizon.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time,” Cortez said before a gaggle of media who had gathered for a tour of the new courthouse on Friday afternoon.

Initially, the courthouse’s construction was slated to reach a state of “substantial completion” by Feb. 28, 2021, according to Morganti Inc., the Houston-based firm tasked with building it

On Friday, however, the county judge was looking at the facility’s future, not its past.

He thanked the efforts of previous county administrations in getting the new courthouse project started, especially as the region’s population — and its needs — have grown.

“We have grown a lot and this courthouse is going to be really an iconic building for us to enjoy and to use for the responsibility of our judicial services that we have to provide,” Cortez said.

The county has experienced so much growth that the very courtroom Cortez stood in during the media tour has already been spoken for.

Originally, the seventh and top floor of the courthouse was meant to house extra courtrooms that the county could use for future expansion. But, since the courthouse’s construction first began in 2018, the county’s judicial system has expanded to include one new state district court and two county courts-at-law.

The new courtroom where Cortez spoke stood in stark contrast to the ones currently found in the existing courthouse, which was built in 1954 for a cost of about $1.5 million.

In the 70-year-old courthouse, courtrooms can be found along hallways lined with marble. The courtrooms themselves are walled with warm wood panels and outfitted with church-like solid wood pews upon which both spectators and prisoners alike sit.

The new courthouse, however, boasts something different.

The floral filigree patterns seen on the facility’s large, plasma-cut steel facades are repeated inside via similarly patterned vinyl decals that line the glass in the entrance and interior walls. The public will find that the new courtrooms are set along grand hallways filled with multiple seating areas. Floor to ceiling windows let in ample natural light.

But inside, the courtrooms themselves are a bit more reserved in their appearance.

Benches made of dark gray laminate, light gray walls, and wood-patterned laminate partitions and accent walls denote the seriousness of the business that will soon be carried out within them.

The new courthouse will be home to all of the county’s district courts, except for the juvenile justice court, Cortez said.

All the county courts-at-law, masters courts, the 13th Court of Appeals and district court’s office will be housed here, as well.

Each courtroom is also outfitted with ancillary office space for attorneys and prosecutors to meet in. And in addition to the courthouse’s main prisoner holding areas on the first floor, each floor except the second is equipped with “at least 12 holding cells,” Cortez said.

The Hidalgo County Bar Association, the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office and the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office will have “a small office here,” though the county’s assistant district attorneys will have to office elsewhere.

The first floor of the courthouse features an expansive security checkpoint boasting five metal detectors, a cafe with seating space for more than 100 people, and a massive wall of screens showing all the court dockets being heard that day.

“What is important for you all to know is that we really care about doing something in a quality fashion,” Cortez said.

“The commissioners court was very desirous to really build something that we could be proud of,” he said.

Despite the celebratory atmosphere that Cortez and other local officials displayed during Friday’s media tour, the county is not yet at a point where the move-in process can begin.

“There’s a couple of steps that we need to follow to be able to get there, which includes court approval,” Oscar Villarreal, the county’s director for facilities, said.

And there’s still the matter of the many delays that will have pushed the courthouse’s opening back by more than four years, once all is said and done.

“It’s anybody’s guess. We think that the worst case will be by the end of March (2025),” Cortez said about when move-in day will actually come.

The long delays have become quite the sore spot for the county judge, who begrudgingly answered questions about the problems that Hidalgo County has had with Morganti.

“I thought we already covered that,” Cortez said before adding, “You know, we had some issues with the contractor. The contractor wasn’t able to complete certain tasks on time.”

“We had a choice to either continue with that contractor or to go with the surety company. And we felt that it was better to work with the contractor,” he said.

But Morganti wasn’t just running behind schedule. Last August, county officials stated that the firm had “essentially stopped working” on the project at all.

The Monitor also learned, via requests made under the Texas Public Information Act, that county officials at one time characterized their relationship with Morganti as so contentious that the county sought to withhold public records in anticipation of litigation against the company.

Morganti’s work stoppage lasted for months, and it came after county officials had become so concerned over the status of the long-delayed project that they hired a third party engineering firm to inspect the facility.

That firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, or WJE, discovered substantial construction defects, including leaks in the roof and the building’s exterior shell, problems with the windows, and more.

Work resumed on the project earlier this year, with county records showing that officials and builders were holding meetings nearly every week into the summer, including several conversations that were memorialized on invoices as “dispute support.”

As to whether those disputes have been resolved, or if litigation is still on the table, the judge declined to answer.

“You know, I’m not gonna answer that question right now because we want to get into this courthouse and see if there were any wrongdoings,” Cortez said.

“Then we have a duty to pursue if there were any wrongdoings. At this point in time, I can’t tell you that there has been any, but we don’t know yet,” he said.

In the meantime, county officials continue to work on finalizing the last few items on their “punch list,” and Cortez took a moment to revel in how far the courthouse has come, despite the delays.

“As you can see, this is a magnificent facility. I think we’re gonna be very proud of it. I think we’re gonna be able to use it for a long, long time,” Cortez said.

The post At the finish line: Hidalgo Co. officials show off new courthouse occupancy certificate appeared first on MyRGV.com.