The contractor has been selected for the new courtroom project at the Dallas County Courthouse, so the final phase of the building’s remodel will soon begin.

The Board of Supervisors considered the bids for the project at their most recent meeting, accepting the low bid of $400,556 from the Lejas Corporation of Tempe, Arizona. The Board also accepted Lejas’s bid of $10,640 for the second alternate of the project, which includes paneling for a wall that will feature a memorial to former Assistant Dallas County Attorney Sean Weiser. The first alternate, which includes several technology additions to the courtroom, proved a bit more complicated.

In the bid from Lejas, there was a clerical error that resulted in a price that was $100,000 lower than intended. Jerry Purdy with the Farnsworth Group, the architecture firm working on the project, said that raised questions as to whether the contractor was responsible, in spite of their good references and solid track record with this type of project. The matter was resolved, however, after Fifth Judicial Court Administrator Christopher Patterson told Purdy the courts would be seeking bids and paying for the technology piece of the construction themselves.

A contract with Lejas will be considered at a future Supervisors meeting, at which time the contractor can begin work. They expect the project to take 180 days to complete. The second floor courtroom is the final phase of the courthouse remodel, which included moving the Clerk of Court and Juvenile Courts to the east wing of the second floor, shifting the Treasurer’s Tax Department and Recorder’s Office to the west wing of the first floor, and the Treasurer’s Motor Vehicle Department into the east wing of the first.