Courthouse Project Cost Explodes

Conceptual rendering of the new courthouse (right) and the historic courthouse (left) with a new entrace on MacArthur Square.

The price for a new criminal courthouse in Milwaukee just went up, dramatically.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley‘s administration has spent the past few years nudging along planning and design to replace the dilapidated, nearly 100-year-old Safety Building at 821 W. State St. They’ve designed a flexible, modern courthouse focused on safety and ease of access for those working in and interacting with the criminal justice system. There are also facilities specifically designed for problem-solving courts that take a holistic approach to criminal justice, considering an individual’s life circumstances alongside their criminal violations.

For years, administration officials have pegged total project costs somewhere between $450 and $500 million. In the past year, that figure has landed on $490 million.

On Wednesday, the Crowley administration released a statement to Urban Milwaukee saying the project is now estimated to cost $897 million in total.

The new cost estimate covers demolition of the Safety Building and construction of a new courthouse; construction of a new entrance on MacArthur Square to the historic courthouse, 901 N. 9th St.; leased swing space for court operations during construction; a new skyway between the courthouse and the Milwaukee County Jail; and upgrades to the jail, which do not include adding additional jail capacity.

Initially, the Crowley administration lobbied the state for $250 million to support the project. It didn’t secure direct support, but it did receive new funding in the most recent state biennial budget for expressway patrols conducted by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). In 2026, the administration, with approval from the county board, took $15.8 million in property tax funds — offset by the new state funds — out of the MCSO budget and moved it to the courthouse project.

The county is also expected to borrow millions of dollars and pay off the debt by increasing its property tax levy.

Under the previous cost estimate, the increase was expected to translate to approximately $88 a year for a property with a value of $250,000.

The county has already budgeted $38.6 million for planning and design costs. The cash made available by the expressway patrol funding would save local taxpayers $94.8 million during construction, according to the Crowley administration. Once construction is over, if the funding is applied to pay down the debt, it will save taxpayers another $316.4 million.

In total, the county is expecting to borrow $763 million for the new project. An outside spokesperson doing communications for the Crowley administration declined to comment on the estimated interest costs associated with that much debt.

In the statement released Wednesday, the administration did not express support for pausing regular county borrowing for infrastructure and maintenance in Milwaukee County Parks or other county properties during construction. A borrowing moratorium was previously discussed by administration officials and county supervisors.

The time is now; that’s the view of the Crowley administration and partners on the county board and in the circuit court system. Doing nothing is not cost-neutral, in terms of infrastructure or the functioning of the court system, they say.

“We are faced with an urgent need. The Public Safety Building has well surpassed the end of its life. The question in front of us isn’t whether we replace it, but when we will do it and how responsibly we can get it done,” Crowley said in a statement. “At the same time, this structural need presents the rare opportunity to make a generational investment in a safer community, greater accessibility, and more efficient services. Milwaukee County can live out our values and priorities without breaking the bank.”

The Safety Building is considered by court officials an impediment to the smooth, safe operation of the circuit court system. According to county officials, there is inadequate meeting space, leaving attorneys to sometimes hold meetings over hallway trash cans, and there are no separate passageways for defendants, people in custody, victims or family members, which has led to violence and mistrials. The administration estimates it would cost $334 million just to perform all necessary building maintenance and bring the building up to code, which would still leave the operational issues.

“Let me be blunt: Doing nothing isn’t free. This building is going to cost us whether we act or not, and every month we wait, that number climbs and the risk of emergency repairs increases,” Supervisor Steve F. Taylor, chairman of the Committee on Finance, said in a statement. “My job is to protect the people who pay the bills, and that means getting a new courthouse built without dumping the whole tab in the laps of Milwaukee County taxpayers.”

The development team has attempted to value-engineer the project wherever possible. Chief Judge Carl Ashley recently told supervisors during a June 15 meeting of the Committee on Finance that he agreed to fewer courtrooms than he would have preferred, knowing the building is being designed for future flexibility. At that meeting, Aaron Hertzberg, director of the Department of Administration, also told supervisors in June that the county planners have cut $100 million in costs from the project compared to what was initially recommended by design consultants.

Sup. Anne O’Connor encouraged Hertzberg to put effort into communicating the financial cost and the community need of the project to stakeholders. “We are the ones here that are really gonna hear it when the taxes go up,” she said.

Sup. Shawn Rolland, who works in communications for Northwestern Mutual, offered some advice on this front. He said no one in the public wants a new courthouse. “They do want faster wait times. They do want fewer days to clear felony cases. They do want ADA compliance everywhere. They do want more victim support … They do want our capital backlog to be basically halved by a big project like this. They don’t want as many safety incidents.”

Being able to easily explain the project’s impact on these issues would help supervisors communicate the project’s need to residents, he said.

Design is expected to continue into 2028, when demolition of the Safety Building is planned to begin. Construction is expected to last from 2029 to 2032.

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