A new federal courthouse in downtown Hartford will be built a short walk from the city’s train station, according to an announcement Monday, a decision that follows years of debate over replacing the aging judicial complex on Main Street and the push in the U.S. Congress to fund the $335 million project.
The courthouse will be built on about 2 acres on Allyn Street near Union Station, with construction expected to begin in 2027 and an opening expected in 2030
The Allyn Street site — once targeted for housing — was the expected choice for the new courthouse after it was named as a preferred site for the courthouse by the U.S. General Services Administration in May. The Allyn Street lot surpassed two other options: redeveloping a state-owned building on Woodland Street in the city’s Asylum Hill neighborhood and continuing to use the outdated, 1960s Abraham Ribicoff Federal Building and Courthouse on Main Street, perhaps with a renovation.
Now that there is a final selection, the GSA must negotiate the purchase of the parking lot.
“The new Hartford federal courthouse represents our commitment to modernizing critical judicial infrastructure, enhancing court operations, and creating a secure, efficient facility that will serve the District of Connecticut and the Second Judicial Circuit for decades to come,” federal Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters said, in a release.
United States Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farrish praised the selection and the “important milestone” that has now been reached in the move toward the construction of a new courthouse.
Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, who backed the Allyn Street alternative last year, said Monday that he has continued to advocate for that location.
“Today’s announcement is another step towards revitalization and economic development for Allyn Street to the benefit of Hartford residents, and I look forward to watching this courthouse become a reality,” Arulampalam said, in a statement.
The parking lot is owned by Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC of Brooklyn, N.Y. — downtown Hartford’s largest commercial landlord — and Hartford-based LAZ Investments, an arm of parking giant LAZ Parking.
Bernard Bertram, managing member of Shelbourne, praised the choice Monday, adding: “The courthouse will be an economic boost for Hartford’s Downtown and will help continue growing its vibrancy.”
Shelbourne bought the Allyn Street parking lot for $3.9 million in 2019.
The GSA, which oversees federal building projects, said it would soon start to seek an architectural designer for the project. Designs are expected to get underway in 2026.
The replacement of the courthouse also is expected to raise the issue of what to do with the Ribicoff complex, located in a prominent spot on Main Street, just south of the main branch of the Hartford Public Library. In addition to the courthouse, the complex has space for federal offices.
While the Allyn Street parking lot was once targeted for housing, it had, in recent years, dropped down in the priority of housing projects planned for parking lots. North Crossing around Dunkin’ Park; Bushnell South, just east of The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts; and the parking lot near Bushnell Park where the Parkview Hilton once stood took on higher profiles.
The Allyn Street parking lot also is near another federal building, the William R. Cotter building on nearby High Street.
Even so, some argued that the new courthouse would better fit on the Washington Street corridor or even on a parking lot on Sheldon Street, near the existing Ribicoff complex.
Construction of a new courthouse is seen as needed to tackle significant, ongoing security, space and building condition problems at the Ribicoff complex. Prisoner movement is through public corridors and through public entrances of each courtroom because the layout of the building does not allow for separation of public, prisoner, judge and staff movement.
The existing courthouse now has eight courtrooms and 11 chambers, many of which do not meet modern size standards. A new courthouse of up to 281,000 square feet in size would have 11 courtrooms and 18 chambers for 18 judges and up to 66 underground, secure parking spaces. Last year, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court of the District of Connecticut cautioned that rising construction costs could force a downsizing of the project.
Plans also have called for re relocating the district’s headquarters from New Haven to Hartford.
Two other potential courthouse sites were previously withdrawn. One, at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Hudson Street in the Bushnell South area met with stiff opposition. The other, a parking lot across from Bushnell Park where the long-demolished Parkview Hilton once stood, was pulled in favor of other redevelopment plans.
Virtually all of the dozen or so speakers at a hearing in December backed the Allyn Street site. Supporters of the location the courthouse would be a boost for downtown and within short walking distance to the train station, downtown law firms and nearby shops and restaurants
The Woodland Street building, on 10 acres, drew support from the neighboring University of Connecticut School of Law, which argued “a vibrant, legal nexus” could be created. Opponents to the site being developed as a courthouse focused on traffic — already a problem that they argued that would further intensify.
In its report in May, the GSA said the other alternative at 61 Woodland Street did not align with the goals of the strategic plan of the Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association, a local neighborhood revitalization zone organization.
Those goals “are generally focused on incorporating neighborhood and neighborhood-serving development such as residences and local retail,” the report said. “These goals do not align with the use of the Woodland site as a new courthouse.”
In addition, the city would lose an annual payment in lieu of taxes from the state of $350,000, according to the report.
The GSA did note the loss of $206,751 in annual property taxes generated by the Allyn Street parking lot. With the purchase of the lot for the courthouse project, the property would become exempt from local property taxes.
“This may be somewhat offset by the potential for a new courthouse to attract further businesses and investments in the downtown Hartford, potentially resulting in increased real estate values and business tax revenues in the area.”