Work starts on
Judiciary site

A new Hilo complex scheduled
to open in 2007 will offer
more security and space

HILO » State Chief Justice Ronald Moon and others broke ground Wednesday for a new, $86 million Hilo Judiciary Complex. Completion is expected in the fall of 2007.

Moon noted that efforts to create a new building with courtrooms and related facilities began more than two decades ago.

"I'm elated, just elated, to see so many people still alive after waiting (so long) for this," he joked.

A narrow site between the present state office building and the Hilo Lagoon office and residential building was opposed in the early 1990s by Hilo Lagoon residents.

An area of the former J.C. Penney Co. buildings across the street from the Hilo Lagoon was selected in 1998, but Hawaii County had already bought it to build its own new office space.

In 2001 the Judiciary finally settled on the site of the former Kaikoo Mall, connected to the Penney's site but separately owned. Demolition of the old mall began last year.

The new three-story main building plus a one-story wing, with a total of 175,000 square feet, will sit on eight acres in the administrative heart of Hilo, home to county and state buildings.

Currently, the Judiciary shares a building with other state agencies. The Judiciary will have the new building to itself, making security much easier.

All of the currently scattered Judiciary facilities will be housed in the single new building, including Family Court.

Hilo has six judges, but the new building has nine courtrooms, which means plenty of room for expansion, Moon said.

He expects the Judiciary to seek more judges for Hilo in the "foreseeable future."

As to how many years that might be, he noted that the Kaahumanu Hale judicial building in Honolulu was built with excess capacity, yet it was found to be too small within 10 years.

"That's a lesson. We take it very seriously," he said.

Besides courtrooms, the new building will have holding cells, witness rooms, interview rooms, a law library and a grand-jury room.