Gallatin County purchased the Farm Bureau building on 19th Street to make room for services that were supposed to go into the new courts building but were unable to fit in.
“Everybody that comes in loves this atrium,” says Gallatin County Chief Operating Officer, Nick Borzak.
Gallatin County purchased the farm bureau building for $3.9 million.
“We had some other users in justice building that were going to need a home,” says Gallatin County Commissioner Scott MacFarlane.
“Stick to this first floor for remodeling for level one records and court services and 911 records," says Borzak.
The county originally planned to build a new building which would have cost them about $9 million dollars to build which would have been half the size of the Farm Bureau building.
“Might as well go ask around the neighborhood and see if anybody would be interested in selling new buildings adjacent to our campus,” says MacFarlane.
The county says tenants' leases are month-to-month that will continue through at least next September, which is when they expect to start renovations. The renovations are projected to cost 2 to 4 million dollars.
Having this building next to the old law and justice center is expected to help with flow being next to the new courts building that is under construction.
“You can see the form on the big courts building right on the other side of the snow pile so it's any easy connection,” says Borzak.
As the buildings under construction come together, they see a future of a centralized campus of county services.
“Starting to flesh out that campus gives us some more parts that we can move so we can think about being creative,” says MacFarlane.
The next step for this building is renovations, which the county expects to have done in 2023, and line up with the County Courts building next door to open both up sometime in 2024.
