On Friday, dignitaries will officially break ground for the new federal courthouse to be constructed in downtown Greenville.
In attendance for the ceremony, which is by invitation only, will be GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Nina M. Albert, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson, U.S. Chief District Court Judge Debra Brown and Greenville Mayor Errick D. Simmons.
The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the 200 block of Washington Avenue.
Government Services Administration officials said all contracts have been let for construction and work will begin on site in September.
The construction of a new federal courthouse in downtown Greenville has been a long process.
On Sept. 25, 2017, the GSA selected Stein Mart Square as its preferred site for the construction of the courthouse.
“I have further concluded that selection of one build alternative in particular — construction of a new courthouse at the Stein Mart Site — best fulfills the purpose and need of the project,” James Weller, regional commissioner of the GSA’s public buildings service, said at the time of the selection.
The General Services Administration in early July of 2017 announced three possible locations for Greenville’s new multi-million-dollar federal courthouse: the Levee Site on Central Street; Stein Mart Square at South Poplar Street and Washington Avenue; and the Elks Lodge on Washington Avenue.
In mid-July, the GSA nixed the Elks Lodge site from consideration for numerous reasons, including the lodge’s placement by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as a contributing factor to the National Historic Register status of downtown Greenville.
Weller, in his report, concluded Stein Mart Square was the better option over the Levee Site, given the square “would not require additional research, investigations and possible mitigation with regards to potential historical site contamination issues present at the Levee Site. These activities can be extremely costly and time-consuming to the federal government.”
Funding for the courthouse was set aside in December 2015 in the fiscal year 2016 omnibus appropriations bills, thanks, in part, to then senior Mississippi U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran.
GSA began the site selection soon after, and in doing so, sought properties in the immediate vicinity of downtown Greenville.
At the time of site selection, GSA expected construction to begin in March 2019 in order to have the courthouse open and operational by fall 2021.
The funds for construction of the courthouse and purchase of property were set aside by the U.S. General Services Administration as part of $136 million in the FY16 Omnibus Spending Bill for two federal courthouse projects in the agency’s Southeast Sunbelt Region, one of which is in Greenville. The other courthouse projects in Savannah, Ga.
“The authorizations mark an important step in moving these courthouse projects forward,” Mike Goodwin, GSA Regional Commissioner for the Southeast Sunbelt Region, said in a press release at the time. “This investment will help GSA support the judiciary’s mission and prompt local economic development.”
The City of Greenville in December 2015 received about $46 million through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, which was pushed by Cochran and passed by a 65-33 vote in the Senate and 316-113 roll call vote in the House.
Cochran, as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was key in the development and passage of this 2,009-page spending bill that contains $6.78 billion in discretionary funding for the federal Judiciary.
When completed, Greenville’s new federal courthouse will provide two courtrooms with three judicial chambers for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. Other tenants will include the U.S. Marshals Service, the Office of the U.S. Attorneys, the Office of the Federal Public Defender and the U.S. Probation Services Office.
