CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For the next five years, San Patricio County officials will be playing musical chairs as they build a new justice center along with renovating the Walmart.
The old Walmart sits on the east side of town and the county is renovating some 15,000 sq. ft. of the facility. The courthouse is too cramped and officials said they had to do something to accommodate everyone.
A number of county offices are about to move out of the courthouse which will also be renovated and expanded.
The new county administrative offices will be finished soon. The $700,000 renovation is set to be completed on April 17. San Patricio County Judge David Krebs took 3NEWS on a tour of the place he’ll be calling home for perhaps the next five years.
He’s also bringing several other departments over to the facility.
"The Tax Assessor Collector, that’s probably going to be the busiest part of this building," he said. "Behind where we are standing is where they will be coming to get their auto license plates and renewals for their cars and stuff.”
Krebs also showed 3NEWS the new commissioners court room which will now be able to seat 75 people instead of 25. Krebs said the arrangement may need to be in place for some five years because a new justice center is being built which will house the court system.
Then the courthouse will be renovated and 10,000 ft.² will be added to it. Once the county moves back into the courthouse there’s a possibility that the county will continue to utilize the space.
"Now we’ve got some other offices that are getting outdated," he said. "The buildings and stuff we may just decide to stay in here and move some of those other departments into this.”
Krebs told 3NEWS that he believes that by mid-May the complex will be up and running. The City of Sinton actually owns the building and the county will start paying them over $3000 a month to rent out the space.
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