Supervisors Authorize $851 Million Courthouse Project

Conceptual rendering of new courthouse and historic courthouse with new entrance on MacArthur Square.

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to authorize a debt issuance for the development of a new $851 million criminal courthouse.

Since 2024, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s administration has been publicly advancing a plan to replace the aging, dilapidated Safety Building, 821 W. State St.

County officials have delayed building a new criminal courthouse for decades. The board-authorized plan will tear down the nearly 100-year-old Safety Building and build a modern courthouse in its place. The project budget also includes funding for improvements to the adjacent historic courthouse — the neoclassical structure at 901 N. 9th St.

“It was built in 1929, and for decades we made it work. We patched it. We adapted it. We made generations of public servants work within it; doing something that it was never built to,” Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell said. “We already know that this building can no longer safely or responsibly do the job that we ask of it.”

The new courthouse is expected to be the largest public works project in county government history, even after Sup. Shawn Rolland successfully amended the project, cutting $46 million for a new entranceway to the historic courthouse.

Under the amended budget, the county will need to borrow $812 million to complete the project. The debt issuance will lead the county to exceed a bonding cap set by county policy, but that falls below state-imposed borrowing limits.

The estimated interest associated with the original project budget — $897 million — is $621 million, raising the total long-term project cost above $1 billion. The administration estimated the county would need to steadily raise property taxes until they hit a rate equivalent to about $137 annually for a $250,000 house to pay down the debt. The county will be paying back the debt until 2049.

The county board voted 16 to one Thursday to authorize the debt issuance. Only Sup. Justin Bielinski voted against the authorization. Sup. Juan Miguel Martinez was not in attendance at the meeting.

Bielinski has been the board’s most outspoken critic of the project. He expressed frustration with the planning process, suggesting the county should have considered a decentralized courthouse or going after philanthropic funding for the project. He also said he is angry that the county is committing to spend so much on the new facility when it has long struggled to fund parks, public transit, cultural institutions and health care.

“We thank the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors for their thoughtful consideration of the Investing in Justice: Courthouse Complex project, and commend the vote to approve it. This action moves Milwaukee County one step closer to replacing the aging, unsafe Public Safety Building with a facility that meets modern safety, accessibility, and service standards,” Crowley’s office said in a statement to Urban Milwaukee after the vote.

The board also adopted an amendment submitted by the chairwoman adding language to the resolution calling for state support, but not at the expense of other county services like transit, parks and social programs.

Project planning and advocacy have been led by Aaron Hertzberg, Department of Administrative Services (DAS) director, and Chief Judge Carl Ashley. After the vote, Hertzberg and Ashley thanked supervisors for advancing the project.

Supervisors who took the floor in support of the project reflected on the need for the county to take action now, after decades of putting it off, before the project becomes any more expensive.

Sup. Sheldon Wasserman commended Crowley for finally pushing to get the project done, noting that Crowley is now being attacked in the governor’s race for raising taxes.

“We had county executives, successive county executives, who pushed it off to the side,” Wasserman said. “And finally, David Crowley, a young guy, comes from the Legislature, who looked around and said, ‘No, we’re going to fix that on my watch’.”

Sup. Kathleen Vincent said the prospect of higher property taxes for her constituents weighed on her decision, but ultimately she decided to support the project, explaining, “I also understand that delaying this decision will not make the problem go away. It will not make the project less expensive.”

Sup. Jack Eckblad said that the courthouse project is not something supervisors want to spend taxpayers money on, but that the building serves a critical function and the county has a responsibility to provide an adequate space for people to “deal with parts of life that no one wants to deal with.”

Rolland took the floor to argue the project is actually the fiscally sound move for the county, and one that will bring ADA-complaint accessibility to every floor of the courthouse.

“I think the fiscally responsible thing to do is to maintain your stuff and to follow federal law to make sure it’s accessible to people, all people,” he said.

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