April 28, 2026
Jonathan Rich
BrevardBeagle.com
A rendering of the front parking lot of the proposed new Transylvania County Courthouse. Sizemore Group
Monday night Transylvania County Commissioners learned that the three-level courthouse proposed for construction adjacent to the current Sheriff’s Department and Jail facilities is expected to cost at least $35.7 million when it is completed by the end of 2028.
Joel Helms, the president of Atlanta’s Sizemore Group doing the architecture design for the new courthouse, said this facility will have 144 public parking spots, of which 31 spots are for staff on one side of the building and 33 for court officials on the other side. There will also be three handicapped spaces with a direct access sidewalk on one side of the structure and plans for charging stations for at least four electric vehicles on site.
Designs for the new courthouse are 90 percent complete, Helms said, before showing the project’s detainee sally port for controlled prisoner transport and other amenities such as acoustic panels on the sides of courtrooms and neutral color palettes for the walls and carpets in the offices for the district attorney, judges, clerk of court, and other court officials.
Construction project cost estimate courtesy Sizemore Group
The projected construction cost is about $32.7 million with another $3 million for furniture, fixtures, and equipment. The final total cost is at least $35.7 million with bids going out to contractors mid-July and completion of the project by the end of 2028.
“We’re keeping it all very simple and very cost-effective,” the architect said. “We are hovering right now, just looking at the final construction cost of about $32.7 million. That’s roughly about $530 a square foot. For a courthouse, that’s very cost-effective. We are including a line item for furniture, fixtures, and equipment of about $3 million, so we’re looking at a total final project cost of about $35.7 million.”
“How does that compare to our original estimate?” asked Commissioner’s Chair Teresa McCall.
“Our original estimate was about $36 million,” answered County Manager Jaime Laughter. “It comes in good on the construction side of things.”
Commissioner Jake Dalton looked at the renderings and pointed out that the roof of the new courthouse looked flat. “Can we make sure that roof is sloped?” Dalton asked the chief architect. “We haven’t been getting rain right now, but we will.”
A rendering of the proposed roof of the new Transylvania County Courthouse off Public Safety Way. Sizemore Group
“We’ve actually got it at a significant slope,” Helms responded in regard to the covering which will be a durable and flexible Thermoplastic Polyolefin material. “We heard you from day one and we know that we are in a temperate rain forest here. Looking at cost effectiveness and putting up a TPO roof as opposed to an entire roof system is more affordable.”
Civic building requirements and standards mandated by the City of Brevard to make the new courthouse compliant with the unified development ordinance comprised $1.1 million of the total. “That equates to about 3.5 percent of the construction costs … there are costs associated with meeting those standards.”
Unified Development Ordinance costs for the new Transylvania Courthouse. Sizemore Group
Laughter noted that contractor overhead would be another 25% included in the total cost estimate.
Parking lot trees and street trees alone on the property will cost $85,000.
“Landscape buffers include the trees that go along the property line on the east side and the north side,” Helms said. “There’s a lot of trees that will be stacked up along that.”
“What kind of trees?” McCall jokingly asked. “Because I might have some.”
“There will be a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees,” Helms answered. “There is an approved tree list.”
Helms admitted that the UDO requirements in Brevard are stricter than in some other municipalities.
“We have to meet a certain standard because we are a certain-sized building, and because we are a courthouse it has to meet the standards of a civic building,” he said.
A Design Years in the Making
Site plan for new Transylvania County Courthouse, Sizemore Group
In January 2023, Transylvania County Commissioners approved building a new and larger county courthouse adjacent to the public safety and jail facilities. The need for more courtrooms than currently at the historic building dating back to 1861 has been before county leadership since 2005.
Existing space at the current courthouse is approximately 22,000 square feet, including two courtrooms. Previous studies conducted by the county suggested court caseloads would demand anywhere between 45,000 square-feet to 60,000 square-feet to adequately provide service to citizens with four courtrooms in use.
Planning for the new Transylvania County Courthouse has been focused on creating a safer experience for visitors and staff while keeping the budget for this new public building under control.
A rendering of what the lobby of the new Transylvania County Courthouse will look like. Sizemore Group
Monday, Commissioner Larry Chapman asked if there was a consensus among the courthouse stakeholders about what was required and what was requested for the next Transylvania County Courthouse.
Laughter said county officials had received feedback about initial designs and heard requests from staff and the public to incorporate a design that is proposed to make “everyone as happy as happy can be.”
“This is really an efficient building. There’s really not a lot of fluff in this. All the circulation paths are very independent of each other making sure we maintain very secure pathways throughout the building for judges, for the public, and for detainees,” Helms added. “The floor plans really haven’t changed much. We’ve just been making tweaks as we’ve been meeting with all the user groups.”
The Atlanta-based architect also said the design phase of the project is almost finished.
“We’re basically 90 percent; we’re in the final stretch now,” Helms said.
Overview design for the basement of the new Transylvania County Courthouse, which will initially be used for storage. Sizemore Group
The latest big change in the plans involves the structure’s basement, which will be initially designed for storage but could later be utilized for alternate uses as needed in the lifetime of the courthouse.
“Since last we met, we’ve made the decision to fully excavate the basement,” Helms explained. “This gives us future expansion space, and you’ll be so glad we did it. It gives us cost savings. It allows us to balance the site. We were in a costly fill situation where we were having to truck in and fill-in dirt. By fully excavating the basement, this allows us to get to almost to a dead-even cut-and-fill balance.”
The front porch of the new courthouse has been adjusted to reinforce a sense of symmetry at the main public entrance to meet the standards of the city of Brevard’s Unified Development Ordinance while creating a new municipal building that recalls the essence of the historic Transylvania County Courthouse still in use downtown.
“A brick building with cast stone accents going for the courthouse look that we heard several meetings ago,” is how Helms described the curbside appeal of this future piece of pricey Transylvania County real estate on Public Safety Way. “That traditional courthouse colonial revival feel with brick on all sides.”