Superior Court Looks for More Room

The Los Angeles Superior Court is looking for a few good landlords.

The countywide court is in the market to lease commercial office space for 70 courtrooms in Los Angeles, Torrance, Pasadena, Santa Monica and Long Beach, executive officer Frank Zolin said.

“We’re shopping,” Zolin said. “I’m a little leery of your saying that, because everybody and his uncle will be calling me, saying they’ve got space.”

But then, Zolin noted, “We’re talking about large square footage here--leases of a minimum of 50,000 square feet and up. . . . That ought to cut down on the calls.”

Zolin said the space would be used for civil courtrooms--a move that would allow the court to expand criminal facilities in existing courthouses.

He declined to say how much the court was prepared to spend.

However, Jerry Stratton, a broker with Coldwell Banker commercial real estate services, said a lease on 50,000 square feet of office space in a good building in downtown Los Angeles could cost upwards of $1.25 million a year. The same structure in Santa Monica would be about 10% higher. In the other locations, the rent would be slightly less.

The leasing plan was disclosed in a letter this week from Zolin to the county Board of Supervisors. The board and the court are targets of recent lawsuits filed in federal court by the county Bar Assn. and the American Civil Liberties Union, charging that cases are not being disposed of swiftly enough.

“These suits have drawn increased attention to the need to immediately expand Superior Court services,” Zolin wrote.

He noted that the board had recently voted to increase the number of Superior Court judges by 122--or nearly half the court’s current number. But that increase is contingent upon approval by the state Legislature and other governmental bodies.

The letter also said that, in addition to renting, the court’s executive committee of judges favors building additional courthouses near downtown and in the Antelope Valley city of Lancaster.

The court would not be the first to rent space. Both the state Supreme Court and the Second District Court of Appeal rent courtrooms and offices in the Mid-Wilshire district.

Times staff writer David W. Myers contributed to this article.