Calcasieu Parish approves $51.47 million courthouse contracts after local-hiring questions

The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury on April 10 approved amendments to two contracts for a new Calcasieu Parish Judicial Complex, a roughly $51,474,002.47 project the architect and contractor said will take about 28 months to complete.

The contracts were approved after a presentation by the architect and a period of questioning from jurors about the use of local subcontractors. Juror Landry pressed the contractor for specifics on local hiring; a Lemoine Company representative said about 31–35% of subcontracted dollars were tentatively expected to be awarded to firms in Calcasieu Parish.

Bridget Evans, an architect who identified herself by name and business address during the meeting, presented project plans and renderings for the three-story, roughly 100,000-square-foot building. Evans said the building will include 11 courtrooms, expanded public waiting areas, jury rooms, secure holding and separate detainee circulation, and space for the district attorney, public defender and clerk of court staff. Evans said the existing Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) will remain in use during construction and the JDC site will be reworked into a public green space called Calcasieu Square after the new building is finished.

“Total cost of the project is $51,474,002.47. The timeline the total timeline for this building is 28 months,” Evans said during the presentation.

A Lemoine Company representative, George Bridal, described outreach to local firms and the contractor’s prequalification and selection process. Bridal said about $43 million of the project budget represents subcontracted or purchased items, broken into roughly 38 bid packages, and that Calcasieu Parish firms could realistically bid on about 12 of those packages. He gave jurors a tentative estimate that “somewhere between 31 to 35% of that subcontracted work”…