Today, Chief Justice Ronald Moon, Lt. Governor James “Duke” Aiona, Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, Speaker Calvin Say, Mayor Mufi Hannemann, First Circuit Chief Judge Colleen Hirai, other officials of the Hawai`i State Judiciary, and members of the design and construction team broke ground on the future site of the Kapolei Court Complex at the corner of Kamokila Boulevard and Kapolei Parkway. Witnessing the occasion were more than eighty participants and guests.

The Judiciary has planned to build a new facility for the Family Court and juvenile detention center for nearly 20 years. Funding for the initial planning effort was first provided by the Legislature in 1989.

“We’ve known since the late 1980’s that the population would be moving west because of plans to create a second city in what is now Kapolei,” said Moon, who is the driving force behind the Kapolei Court Complex. “With this new project, the Judiciary will be expanding access to court services, not only to the people of West O`ahu, but the entire island. We are moving forward to meet the future.”

The latest design plans call for a four-story, 123,118 square-foot courthouse and a one-story, 52,306 square-foot secure juvenile detention facility to be built on 10.97 acres located in the Kapolei Civic Center. The land was provided by the Estate of James Campbell and will help establish Kapolei as Oahu’s “Second City” and foster economic growth in the `Ewa region.

The courthouse will contain one large, jury courtroom and 12 smaller, non-jury courtrooms. The jury courtroom will be used for district court cases currently handled at the Wai`anae District Court. In addition to transferring the functions currently provided by the District Court located in leased space in Wai`anae to Kapolei, the Judiciary intends to house core family court functions at the Kapolei Court Complex while maintaining certain family court functions and resources in Honolulu.

The new juvenile detention facility will be a 66-bed facility that, when completed, will serve as the only secure juvenile detention facility in the State. Once the Kapolei detention facility is operational, the existing juvenile detention facility in Honolulu will be used by the Judiciary to provide programmed alternatives to secure detention.

The entire complex includes 394 parking spaces; 212 (including 11 handicap accessible stalls) are for public use.

In 2005, the Judiciary obtained a $95 million legislative appropriation to build the new court complex and detention facility. However, during the planning process, escalating construction costs forced the Judiciary to eliminate certain elements and significantly scale down the size of both facilities to remain within budget. Nevertheless, construction costs continued to escalate, forcing the Judiciary to request additional funds from the Legislature. In 2007, another $25.2 million was received. The total estimated cost for planning, design, and construction of the project is $124,455,000.

Construction of the court building and juvenile detention facility – which is expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2009 – is being overseen by the State Department of Accounting and General Services.

The design of the Kapolei Court Complex has received the endorsement of the Kapolei Neighborhood Board and the approval of the Design Advisory Board of the Estate of James Campbell. The court building was designed by Architects Hawai`i, Ltd. (AHL), a multi-disciplinary architectural firm with international experience in architecture, planning, and interior design. Based in Honolulu, the 60-year-old firm has developed a reputation as one of the most versatile and progressive design firms in the Pacific Region. AHL’s more than 90 staff members offer a full range of architectural services to clients throughout Hawai`i, the Pacific Rim, Asia, and United States. AHL designed the Kapolei Police Station, among other well-known Hawai`i, mainland, and Asia Pacific Rim icons, including the Hawai`i State Capitol.

INTEGRUS Architecture, an architecture, structural engineering and interior design firm based in Spokane, Washington, designed the juvenile detention facility. INTEGRUS Architecture has provided criminal justice planning, design and security design services throughout the United States since 1959 and completed over 300 projects in 26 states and territories, including more than 20 juvenile justice projects. INTEGRUS has a long history of corrections and law enforcement projects with the State of Hawaii’s Department of Public Safety, as well as the Honolulu, Maui and Kaua`i police departments.

Both facilities will be constructed by Unlimited Construction Services, Inc., of Kaua`i and Honolulu, the general contractor that built the Kaua`i Judiciary Complex in 2005 and the Kapolei State Library in 2002. Unlimited Construction won the Concrete Achievement award for both projects. The locally-owned company operates exclusively in Hawai`i and specializes in large resort, commercial and industrial projects.

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Contact: Marsha E. Kitagawa, 539-4909