Howard County is pursuing a public-private partnership P3 to upgrade Circuit Courthouse. The current courthouse is 174 years old, and cannot meet capacity, security and technology needs.  

The new Circuit Courthouse will be 230,000 gross square feet, LEED Silver certified, and equipped with additional courtrooms and space for jury and staff. The building will be accompanied by a structured parking facility with 600 spaces and the ability to expand to 1,100 spaces.

After an extensive review of the EOI submittals and the team interviews, the County has selected three respondent teams to move forward to the RFP stage of the project:

• Edgemoor-Star America Judicial Partners (including HOK and Clark)
• Howard County Justice Partners (including Forum Equity, Hensel Phelps and Fentress)
• Howard Judicial Partners (including Skanska Infrastructure, Fengate and Heery)

The successful team will design, build, partially finance, maintain and operate the facilities under a 30-year contract. Howard County has determined that a hybrid financing solution consisting of a combination of public financing and private financing is advantageous for this project. Within this financing structure, Howard County expects to commit both a milestone payment upon substantial completion and availability payments over the project term.

The County hope to complete the selection process by Q3 2018, and then secure commercial and financial close before the end of the year. Construction is scheduled to begin in Q2 2019, and be completed by early 2021.