U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot signed orders this month giving the government possession of property that is now a parking lot along Market Street just north of the current Frank E. Moss U.S. Courthouse at 350 S. Main St.
The historic Odd Fellows Building will be moved, probably in early June, onto that property from its spot near the courthouse, said Government Services Administration spokesman Douglas Flanders last week. The transit across Market Street is expected to take a day or two. That move, as well as the planned purchase of the Shubrick Building just west of the current courthouse, will open up space for the new federal building.
The property that will provide a new home for the Odd Fellows Building had been condemned so it could be used for the courthouse project. The only business remaining there, Diamond Parking, has until March 16 to vacate the property but might cease operations by the end of February, Flanders said.
If all goes as planned and Congress allocates construction money in fiscal 2009, the new courthouse would open for business in April 2012, according to the GSA. The government says it is negotiating to buy the building, where the Port O'Call bar is one of the tenants.
Kent Knowley, owner of the building and the bar, said Friday that he spoke to government representatives a few weeks ago but disputed that the two sides are really in negotiations. Instead, they are in the same place they were a decade ago, he said, with the talk centering on whether he plans to move.
Knowley acknowledged that Port O'Call will eventually have to move but said he's not looking forward to that.
"I've got one of the best clubs in town and I can't think of a better location," he said.
The new courthouse will have 368,446 square feet. The final project cost is expected to be more than $200 million and less than $250 million. The old courthouse, which does not allow prisoners, judges and the public to be routed down separate corridors as a safety measure, is scheduled to be modernized once the new building is up and will house the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and U.S. attorneys.
pmanson@sltrib.com
