Local News in Brief : Court Shopping for Space

The Los Angeles County Superior Court is in the market to lease commercial office space for 70 courtrooms in Los Angeles, Torrance, Pasadena, Santa Monica and Long Beach.

“We’re shopping,” court executive officer Frank Zolin said. “I’m a little leery of your saying that, because everybody and his uncle will be calling me, saying they’ve got space.”

But then he noted: “We’re talking about large square footage here--a minimum of 50,000 square feet and up. . . . That ought to cut down on the calls.”

Zolin said the space would be used for civil courtrooms to allow for expansion of criminal facilities in existing courthouses. He declined to say how much the court was prepared to spend.

However, Jerry Stratton, a broker with Coldwell Banker commercial real estate services, said a lease on 50,000 square feet of office space in a good building in downtown Los Angeles could cost upwards of $1.25 million a year. The same structure in Santa Monica would be about 10% higher. In the other locations, the rent might be less.