Articles

Hunt-Led Team Secures Travis County, Texas Courthouse Project

By Aziza Jackson

EL PASO, Texas — A consortium of developers, designers, and builders has been tapped to develop a 430,000-square-foot civil and family courthouse facility in Austin, according to a recent announcement made by lead architect Hunt Companies, Inc.

The Travis County Commissioners Court selected an affiliate of Hunt Companies, Inc. to lead the group, known as Travis County Courthouse Development Partners (TCCDP), that includes co-developer Chameleon Companies, design-builder Hensel Phelps, lead building designer Gensler, and lead courthouse designer CGL Companies, according to Business Wire.

“Hunt is strategically focused on both Texas geographically and justice and corrections vertically as its core markets and has structured its business to provide the fully integrated scope of design, build, finance, and lifecycle management of a court facility such as Travis County’s,” according to Rodney Moss, senior vice president and project lead for Hunt. “We are delighted that Travis County has chosen our site and our team to negotiate the development agreement for this landmark project for the citizens of Travis County.”

The county has been working on plans to replace the Heman Marion Sweatt Courthouse, which opened in 1931, for more than a decade. In February, the Travis County Commissioners Court voted to solicit proposals from private partners interested in both putting up land for the project and providing a building meeting the County’s performance specifications. Through this competitive process, TCCDP was selected by unanimous vote of the Commissioners to move forward in exclusive negotiations for a development agreement.

When the development agreement is finalized, the facility will be built at TCCDP’s proposed site located between Guadalupe and San Antonio on the east and west and 17th Street and 18th Street on the north and south. The location is approximately six blocks from the county’s core functions and equidistant to the prior site for the Project at 308 Guadalupe, making it a very efficient site for the new courthouse.

The courthouse facility is scheduled to complete in the fourth quarter of 2022.