The price is now up to $50 million, and the completion date is more than a year away.
But there's no sense in "Monday-morning quarterbacking" on county government's takeover of the former Armstrong World Industries building, county commissioners said last week.
Even though a court panel ruled recently that the county must pay the building's former owner another $7.8 million, the commissioners are pressing ahead with renovations begun on the watch of their predecessors, who seized the building by eminent domain in 2004.
"We're probably a year behind on the project," Commissioner Chairman Dennis Stuckey said last week. "We wanted to have folks there by now."
A series of delays at 150 N. Queen has worsened the space crunch at the courthouse, where two new judges took office in January.
And until the project is finished, not much can be done about repairs to the 1975 courthouse, where the roof is leaking and a mysterious bad odor is plaguing one courtroom.
Courthouse remodeling has a price tag of $42 million, on top of $50 million for 150 N. Queen. All that money must come from bond issues, adding to the $19 million-plus the county is paying for debt service this year.
Stuckey said some of the courthouse work might have to be postponed because of skyrocketing costs.
That's not the only space challenge confronting the commissioners.
Commissioner Scott Martin noted that the board is looking at more long-term needs — partly because the 2005 sale of the Conestoga View nursing home and its outbuildings means that the Children and Youth Agency, now headquartered in the old almshouse on the Conestoga View campus, has to move by 2015.
And the county is still working on plans to build a new forensics center to replace the morgue in the basement of Conestoga View.
Commissioner Craig Lehman said 150 N. Queen, originally estimated to cost $35.4 million for purchase and renovation, "continues to be one of our highest-priority issues, and it's going to be for quite some time."
"We want to get it right."
'Challenging conditions'Lehman wants the commissioners to be among the first departments to move into 150 N. Queen St. — "150," as the project is known — in solidarity with the 350 employees already working at the Lancaster Square building.
"It's the only right thing to do," Lehman said.
"We are very, very appreciative of their patience," Stuckey said, under what county administrator Mark Esterbrook described as "extremely challenging conditions."
The renovation project has been plagued with problems. Last spring, the city fire marshal ordered construction to stop because of uncovered holes in floors and walls.
And the county had to pay about $1.5 million to terminate the leases of tenants, including investment firm Smith Barney, which filed a federal lawsuit after high carbon monoxide levels forced employees to evacuate.
But county employees, including Mental Health/Mental Retardation, the elections bureau and Veterans Affairs, continued to work in the building despite balky heating and air conditioning, fires, asbestos abatement, an exploding power station, dust and odors that caused allergic reactions.
Esterbrook said new air quality monitoring has produced good results. Most of the demolition is finished, although some remains to be done.
When the new commissioners took office in January, they hired KCI Technologies Inc. for $120,000 to manage the project. At the commissioners' Wednesday, March 26, meeting, KCI is expected to provide a briefing on the status of the work.
Lehman said KCI projects completion around June 2009.
"Obviously, we're hoping to improve on that timeline," he said.
Delays on the renovations helped to drive up costs, as did the $1.5 million to relocate tenants. The vacated space, which was in a long-range plan for renovation, now might have to be remodeled sooner than anticipated.
And the price jumped earlier this month when a federal court's "board of view" ruled in favor of former owner Dr. Ira Trocki, who had sued to force the county to pay him more.
The previous commissioners — Pete Shaub, Dick Shellenberger and Molly Henderson — took the building by eminent domain in 2004 to meet county space needs. They paid Trocki $8.3 million, the average of three appraisals.
"I did expect the board of view to come back with additional costs," Lehman said. "I was surprised it was higher than expected. ... Let's be honest: It's virtually doubled."
Esterbrook said all costs associated with the project now total $49.9 million.
So the county's plan to borrow $30 million this year for capital projects, most earmarked for 150 N. Queen, had to be revised upward to $38 million, Esterbrook said. The county had $25 million from earlier bond issues in the bank at the end of last year.
That will raise the amount the county pays annually on its debt, which is more than $19 million this year.
"We are not looking to add to that number if we don't have to," Stuckey said.
Trocki has said, as he did last year, that he'd like the county to turn the building back over to him. He also said he might appeal the board of view's award as being too low.
"We made the determination that we need to finish the work we have started," Stuckey said last week. "Any consideration of a different arrangement" can happen when the work is done, "and not before."
"I think it's in the county's best interest to keep the property at this particular point in time," Lehman said. "Long term, the value of that property's going to grow."
Will the county appeal? "We haven't come to that conclusion yet," Stuckey said.
Moving daysThe commissioners are trying to determine the sequence in which 400 more employees will move to "150."
Jonell Walker of the county engineer's office said Domestic Relations, commissioners, controller, solicitor, purchasing, planning commission, public defender, assessment, recorder of deeds, engineering and record management offices will be moving to 150.
One of the biggest challenges will be moving the information technology department, now at the Conestoga View campus at 900 E. King St., because of all the computers and wiring that will need to be relocated.
Offices need to move as soon as possible to free up space for Lancaster County Court, which eventually will occupy nearly all the courthouse.
Walker said as soon as the fifth floor of the courthouse is vacated by the commissioners, some offices will be converted into chambers for three judges who now are "double-bunking" and for hearing rooms.
The leaky roof isn't being fixed yet because long-term plans call for raising the roof to allow more courtrooms on the seventh floor. And officials are still trying to figure out what's causing the smell in Courtroom 1.
Meanwhile, the commissioners are revisiting the courthouse plan.
"It may be, depending on the cost, that we have to push that timeline out into the future just because of the amount of dollars involved," Stuckey said.
And the commissioners are looking at a "strategic plan" for space, Martin said. Decisions have to be made on what to do with rented offices at 40 E. King St. and 225 W. King St.
Then there are the offices now leased from the owner of Conestoga View, Complete HealthCare. Under terms of the 2005 sale, the county had 10-year leases on the outbuildings and a two-year lease on the basement morgue.
"By 2015, we've got to get Children and Youth out of that almshouse," Martin said.
Last year, the previous board decided to build a new forensics center in East Hempfield Township, at an estimated cost of $5 to $6 million, to replace the morgue, whose lease has been extended until 2010.
Martin said the new board is taking another look at the project, which now is before the East Hempfield zoners.
As for 150 N. Queen, he said, "you've got to try your best to make lemons into lemonade."
Lehman concurred.
"There are many other ways we could have done this," he said. Now, though, "we have to manage the project going forward" and not look back.
"There can be no Monday-morning quarterbacking."
Helen Colwell Adams is a Sunday News staff writer. E-mail her at hcolwell@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-4962. 
