In December, the JC Penney building at Bonita Lakes Mall topped the list of temporary locations for the aging Lauderdale County Courthouse, and the preliminary plan was to have everyone relocated by March 1.

Fast forward to late January 2018.

Will JC Penney be the temporary courthouse? Maybe.

Will any relocation happen by March 1? No way.

“There’s zero chance that we can be moved anywhere by March 1,” said Lauderdale County Administrator Chris Lafferty, adding that both JC Penney and the old federal courthouse are still possibilities. “There is some discussion about seeing what other options are out there.”

In December, the board voted to approve “the concept of relocating operations at the courthouse and the courthouse annex to JC Penney for a period of two to three years. Earlier this month, board members voted to accept bids for lease properties after they were informed it was a statutory requirement.

Once all bids are reviewed., LPK Architects, P.A., and construction manager Yates Construction will make a recommendation to the board.

But a change in direction could be on the horizon.

Lafferty said some have suggested renovating the courthouse without relocating employees.

“Some of the key players in the courthouse think the courthouse is not as bad as previously stated,” Lafferty said.

Lauderdale County District 3 Supervisor Josh Todd recently told a local radio station that the JC Penney plan could cost as much as $4 million and that he favored the federal courthouse option. 

Lafferty did not dispute the cost. 

“It’s going to cost several hundred thousand to retrofit with bathrooms, and for partitions for all the employees, and to upgrade the IT stuff, and over two or three years, with rent, it very well could be,” Lafferty said.

Whether it’s the courthouse, JC Penney or another suitable facility, it all depends on who has “the lowest and best-cost alternative,” said Bob Luke of LPK Architects.

“We want to give [the board] all the information they need to make an intelligent decision versus just jumping in there,” Luke said.