Orange County just revealed the opening date of its new courthouse in Winter Park.
The Orange County Clerk of Court will move into the one-story, 33,915-square-foot office building conversion at 4037 Metric Drive in January 2025. The new space, owned by the county, will replace 10,500 square feet of leased space at 450 N. Lakemont Ave. in Winter Park.
The current Winter Park Courthouse location and the Goldenrod Service Center arebeing combined into this one location.
The Orange County Clerk of Court’s building will be three times the size of the existing location. Besides two courtrooms, the space will have double the amount of clerk service stations for customers, as well as a bigger waiting room and a larger room for weddings, as well as a Self-Help Center that will provide legal assistance and low-cost attorney consultations.
Courtrooms at the complex will be used for traffic and civil cases. The building also will include a holding cell, evidence storage, judges chambers, a jury assembly room and a jury deliberation area connected to the civil courtroom.
“Everything from paying your traffic citations, dealing with any court cases, marriage licenses or passports, they all will be here in a full-service courthouse,” Clerk Tiffany Moore Russel said in a September video from the construction site.
Orange County clerk’s office spokesman Dain Weister said the county clerk’s office will maintain 14 staff members from its current site.
Poli Construction is the general contractor, and the construction contract is roughly $12 million, which includes renovating and building out the interior of the existing building on Metric Drive. Orange County government bought the property in November 2020 from Financial Center Winter Park LLC for $4.27 million, according to county records.
Orange County Clerk of Courts has its main downtown Orlando courthouse, as well as branch locations in Apopka, Ocoee and Winter Park, plus a juvenile justice division in south Orlando.
Original Article by Ryan Lynch – Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal
