El Cortez Approved for Courtrooms--but Not Without Reservations

The Board of Supervisors and the San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved the construction of nine courtrooms in the former El Cortez Hotel Convention Center at Beech Street and 8th Avenue.

The five supervisors, voting unanimously in a morning meeting, rejected an opponent’s last-minute, revised bid to place the courtrooms at another downtown site. Their decision hinged on the city’s approval of $3 million for the expansion, which came in a 6-3 vote at the council’s meeting later in the day. Council members Abbe Wolfsheimer, Bruce Henderson and Linda Bernhardt voted no.

Several council members and supervisors, although they supported the final decision, stated during three hours of debate that they preferred the alternative--the former Walker-Scott department store at 5th Avenue and Broadway.

They said that using the Walker-Scott building would further the city’s downtown redevelopment and its restoration would preserve a historic building. In addition, they said, the Walker-Scott building is closer to existing courts and to public transportation.

But the El Cortez site won because it will be cheaper, and more important, the courtrooms will be available sooner.

The plan is still contingent on the lease, which is expected to go through Dec. 20. El Cortez developers say they can open the nine courtrooms six months after that. Walker-Scott advocates said they would need eight months to build the courtrooms. According to David Janssen, the county’s assistant chief administrative officer, the El Cortez option will save the county $2.8 million.

“If all things were equal, the Walker-Scott building is preferable for all the reasons that have been mentioned,” said Supervisor Susan Golding. “But all things aren’t equal.

“Since the county is in the tightest fiscal conditions it has ever faced, our decision is based on a site that works, that can be constructed more quickly and more economically.”

San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell, who has watched colleagues hear cases in cafeterias and exercise rooms, applauded the decision.

“I am very pleased (the Board of Supervisors and the City Council) have decided to go forward with this project and that they understood our critical need, and more important, understood that we needed to get the courts built right now,” said McConnell, who will become the presiding judge of the 69-member court Jan. 1.

“The El Cortez is an inferior site,” said Louis M. Wolfsheimer, the attorney representing O Hill Partners, the Newport Beach-based developers who sought to have the courtrooms placed in the Walker-Scott building.

At the last minute, O Hill Partners twice reduced the cost of its offer. The last proposal, which matched the El Cortez price, was pitched to the supervisors at their meeting Tuesday morning.

But several supervisors and council members, who expressed skepticism at the developers’ ability to abide by the new proposal, dismissed it, saying it was submitted too late and disregarded the county’s selection process.