Plans for downtown Greenville’s new federal courthouse will be unveiled today.
The public meeting will take place at 5 p.m. this evening at the William Alexander Percy Memorial Library.
The new federal courthouse is set to be built at the current Stein Mart Square site.
After much deliberation, city officials last year chose instead to turn the site of the historic Elks Lodge, which is in the 500 block of Washington Avenue, into its new green space. The city was granted a demolition permit in January for the building by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Residents can continue to utilize Stein Mart Square’s green space until construction on the courthouse begins.
The General Services Administration offered the $3.61 million design contract to Jackson-based Duvall Decker Architects, who will be working alongside W.L. Burle Engineers, New Orleans-based Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, Jackson-based Engineering Resource Group and Michael Fazion, a retired architectural historian from the Mississippi State University’s School of Architecture.
Construction is anticipated to complete by 2021.
Mayor Errick Simmons said the new federal courthouse will be a boon to the local community.
“The new federal courthouse in our downtown is a legacy project that will change the face of Greenville for decades,” Simmons said. “This courthouse shows how local and federal partnerships matter in maximizing federal investments in supporting the economic vision of local communities across the country. I applaud the commitments of Senator Thad Cochran, Senator Roger Wicker, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, and our federal judiciary in the Northern District of Mississippi for this courthouse.”
