Project Info
The Superior Court of California, County of Fresno - New Fresno Courthouse project provides a new 36-courtroom courthouse of 413,000 square feet in the city of Fresno. It includes secured parking for judicial officers. The project will require acquisition of a site of approximately 2.09 acres. It will replace/consolidate the court’s operations and courtrooms currently in three existing facilities: Fresno County Courthouse, North Annex Jail, and M Street Courthouse. It also provides space for growth in future new judgeships. The project will use the Design-build delivery method.
Background
Fresno County is served by five superior court facilities that are centrally located in the county and in the city of Fresno. These court facilities are the Fresno County Courthouse (criminal and juvenile dependency matters), North Annex Jail (criminal and domestic violence matters), M Street Courthouse (criminal and traffic matters), B.F. Sisk Courthouse (civil, family law, child support, probate, small claims, and unlawful detainer matters), and Juvenile Justice Court (juvenile delinquency matters). The new courthouse project will replace and consolidate the court’s operations and courtrooms currently in the county-owned Fresno County Courthouse and North Annex Jail and in the leased M Street Courthouse. As the superior court continues to have a need for new judgeships, the project will also provide some space for future growth.
The Fresno County Courthouse is the superior court’s oldest and largest facility and is substantially out of compliance with regulatory safety, seismic, accessibility codes, and Judicial Council space standards. Among its significant functional issues are its undersized lobby and space for entrance screening, too few elevators to accommodate the high volume of daily court users, undersized/lack of space for jurors to assemble as well as deliberate, lack of holding facilities, no secure attorney-client interview rooms, and no path of circulation for in-custodies separate from the public and judicial officers and staff. The M Street Courthouse has similar deficiencies to the Fresno County Courthouse including space shortfall, overcrowding, no separate paths of circulation, and limited holding facilities. The court’s space in the North Annex Jail is undersized for public waiting and staff operations.
For this project, acquisition will be required of site of approximately 2.09 acres in the city of Fresno.
The New Fresno Courthouse will accomplish the following immediately needed improvements to the superior court and enhance its ability to serve the public:
- Provide an accessible, safe, and efficient courthouse for criminal and other case types.
- Improve security, relieve overcrowding, and improve operational efficiency and customer service. Provide court operations in a facility with adequate space for greater functionality than in current conditions, including:
- Safe and secure internal circulation that maintains separate zones for the public, staff, and in- custody defendants.
- Adequate visitor security screening and queuing in the entrance area. Both secure and nonsecure attorney-client interview rooms.
- Improves public service, including an adequately sized self-help area. Has ADA accessible spaces.
- Adequate spaces for jury deliberation and jury assembly with capacity for typical jury pools. Facility with dependable physical infrastructure.
- Secure in-custody holding facilities adequate in number.
- Realize court operational efficiencies and savings from improved space adjacencies through consolidation of operations and services.
- Improve Sheriff’s ability to efficiently manage in-custody movement by providing adequate holding areas/cells and circulation.
- Replace the existing Fresno County Courthouse, which is rated as a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) P-154 High-Risk, seismically deficient building.
- Provide additional courtrooms in anticipation of funding for future judgeships.
- Avoid over $42 million in deferred maintenance and security refresh expenditures.
This project is in the Immediate Need priority group and consequently is one of the highest priority trial court capital-outlay projects for the judicial branch.
Schedule
This project is currently in the Acquisition phase.
The Performance Criteria phase is estimated to begin in June 2026 and complete in July 2027.
The Design-Build phase—including Construction—is estimated to begin in July 2027 and complete in September 2031.
Project Images
