$1 Billion Justice Complex Planned for New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — A new justice complex that will include several New Orleans criminal justice agencies is expected to cost approximately $1 billion and take about 10 years to complete, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency report.

FEMA’s Justice Facilities Master Plan envisages a justice project that will concentrate municipal law enforcement, judicial and correctional facilities, and emergency response agencies, within a 24-square-block mid-city location.

The agency will provide almost $240 million in federal compensation for the replacement or renovation of justice facilities damaged during Hurricane Katrina, officials say.

A new $150 million judicial center, consolidating criminal, civil and municipal courts in a 12-story courthouse on a site adjacent to the existing district court building, will also include a new district attorney’s office and support buildings.

With construction work on the judicial component of the project scheduled to begin in 2010, planned renovations to existing buildings on the site will raise the estimated cost of the complex’s judicial component to more than $420 million, according to the FEMA report.

Much of the existing detention space operated by the Sheriff’s Department dates back to the 1960s. The FEMA plan proposes spending approximately $700 million to build a new 8,000-bed jail.

The plan also calls for the replacement of up to 10 Sheriff’s Department facilities at an estimated cost of $145 million. A $34 million project to build new electrical-plant, kitchen and warehouse facilities is already in the design phase, officials say.

A new $185 million law enforcement center, which will also house the city’s fire department and emergency preparedness agency, will replace the New Orleans Police Department headquarters. The center is elevated to withstand flooding and designed to allow emergency response services to function during disasters and emergency situations.

At a cost of more than $62 million, new permanent facilities to house the coroner’s office and police crime laboratory and evidence storage will be one of the first projects undertaken.

FEMA is coordinating development and financing efforts to re-establish the city’s justice infrastructure, but will defer to local agencies on specific matters of facility design and location.

Some of the $240 million in federal funds are already being used by the city to repair essential buildings, including police headquarters, municipal court buildings and the district attorney’s office, which were damaged during Hurricane Katrina.