Johnson County buys land as part of plan for justice center

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors has agreed to buy three more properties near its jail and courthouse as part of a possible plan for a new criminal justice center.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to purchase 514 and 520 S. Capitol St. and 4 E. Prentiss St. for a total of $1,093,750, officials said.

The purchases are part of the county's planning for a criminal justice center, which may include a new jail and court space. The supervisors have not officially said they'll build on the land it is acquiring, but a committee studying the issue has been focusing on that area recently.

The county for years has been discussing the need for a new jail and court space to relieve the cramped and aging existing jail and courthouse, which are located across Capitol Street and Harrison Street, respectively, from the property purchases.

Even if a justice center is not built there, the supervisors believe they could easily unload the properties, located south of downtown and near the University of Iowa campus, at a profit.

“There's nothing near downtown that's getting less expensive,” Supervisor Janelle Rettig said.

In 2008, the county bought 504 and 510 S. Capitol St. and 7 E. Harrison St. on the same block of the new purchases. That leaves one remaining home on the block, at 518 S. Capitol St., which the county will try to acquire at some point, Rettig and supervisor Chairman Pat Harney said.

The rest of the block is owned by the federal government and contains a parking lot. The county has been in talks with federal officials about acquiring that, which likely would require finding replacement parking, perhaps even on the same block on a portion of the land the county now owns, Harney said.

A major unanswered question for the justice center is how to pay for a project that will cost tens of millions of dollars. It's expected that public approval will be sought for funding, perhaps through a bond issue, and when to seek a vote is an issue officials have been discussing in recent months.

Voters defeated a bond issue for a new jail in 2000.

The properties the county agreed to buy Thursday, which are owned by RY Rentals, are assessed at $723,900 total. The county's nearly $1.1 million purchase price was close to what an appraisal put them at, Harney said, and the county also needs to compensate the seller for loss of future rental income.

The county has agreed to honor the current leases at least through June 2012. It will receive the rental income, which Rettig said was $8,015 a month, and pay property taxes in the meantime.

The county had budgeted $1 million for the purchases, said Andy Johnson, the board's executive assistant.