The Statesman reports:
Travis County commissioners voted today to solicit ideas for a public-private partnership for a civil courthouse planned for a downtown lot that the county recently bought. Such a partnership would lessen the public cost of the courthouse project, slated for the growing entertainment, retail and condo district near Republic Square Park.
Another way to lessen the public cost would be to build the courthouse somewhere else. That undeveloped block is an eyesore today, but it cost $22 million precisely because it is adjacent to a "growing entertainment, retail and condo district." That proximity would be worth a lot to an entertainment, retail or condo development because it would enjoy spillover business from its neighbors.
The County does not need spillover business for its courthouse because it has a monopoly on the dispensation of civil justice. People must go to the courthouse; they do not need to be enticed. The County does not benefit from that block's premium location but it is paying the premium price anyway. Hence the pressure to find unorthodox ways to cash in on the location.
Rather than plunge into the tricky business of administering civil justice and selling designer handbags from the same building, the County should put the lot back on the market and find a cheaper place to build downtown.
I'm ambivalent about whether the courthouse will be bad for Republic Square and the retail district in general. I think it will be a net loss compared to a condo tower with street-level retail -- even if the courthouse eventually offers street-level retail -- because a condo tower would add people in the evening, when foot traffic is thin. But county courthouses, unlike federal courthouses, generate a lot of pedestrian traffic because so many types of business are conducted there. Their customers are rarely happy people, so I doubt the nearby shops will see much of a bounce. Restaurants will, though -- it might be a good time for Jo's to go public.
(Yes, I know, it's an old photo.)
