PANAMA CITY Though Bay County requested $7.5 million in reimbursement from federal officials for the scrapped Panama City federal courthouse project in early February, not much has changed.
The General Services Administration, which had a lease on the Bay County Juvenile Courthouse, is still trying to work the numbers on the proposal, officials say. The plan was to renovate the juvenile courthouse and turn it into a new federal courthouse.
According to County Manager Bob Majka, county officials still are pursuing a federal courthouse in Panama City. He said that they are working with Rep. Neal Dunn s office to determine the next steps after the lease termination agreement is reached with GSA.
Some officials involved with the project said they hope that the reimbursement cost will bring GSA back to the table to figure out how to get a federal courthouse in downtown Panama City.
The previous federal courthouse in Panama City was destroyed by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. Since that time, federal court cases for Panama City have been held in Pensacola or Tallahassee, depending on the judge.
A GSA spokesperson said they are currently reviewing Bay County s proposal. There wasn t any indication on a timetable for when the GSA would submit its response to the county. In our response letter we had asked them (GSA) if it s possible because we feel the community benefits from having a federal courthouse here, said Keith Bryant, public works director for Bay County. We made a last request that they reconsider pulling out of the lease and we also suggested that if the courts can t be here, then maybe GSA could find another tenant to put in that location.
PANAMA CITY Hope still remains for a new federal courthouse in Panama City.
Bay County officials are compiling a bill to send to the federal government for the recently nixed project to turn the county juvenile courthouse into a federal courthouse. Some officials said they hope the cost might persuade the federal administrators to reconsider their decision on the project.
The federal General Services Administration (GSA), which had a lease on the juvenile courthouse, informed Bay County officials earlier this month that the government has decided not to relocate any federal agencies to that courthouse in Panama City. The county has spent years renovating the building in preparation for federal occupation.