DOWNTOWN
NEW COURTHOUSE
JUST A YEAR AWAY
14
ED DRONDOSKI
This is how the 123,400 square-foot courthouse looked during construction in January 2011.
When complete, the federal building will house
15 agencies and more than 100 employees
BY SUSAN BURGESS
More than 20 years after city officials first expressed hopes that a new
federal courthouse would grace downtown Fort Pierce, the soonto
be-named Alto Lee Adams Sr. U.S. Courthouse is due to open in
January of next year.
A bill to name the courthouse after Adams, a Florida Supreme
Court chief justice, local rancher and attorney, was introduced in the U.S. House
by Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., and was passed in December. Next, it heads to the
Senate for approval.
Adams was chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court from 1949-1951. He
began practicing law in 1924 in Fort Pierce, started Adams Ranch in western St.
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Alto Lee Adams Sr.
U.S. Courthouse
101 S. U.S. 1
at Orange Avenue
Size: 123,400 square feet
Cost: $42-$50 million
Groundbreaking: Feb. 2009
Completion: January 2012