Miami-Dade Circuit Chief Judge Bertila Soto at the February 2, 2020, courthouse groundbreaking. Photo: Cathy Wilson/ALM

Builder approval in hand, Miami-Dade County and court officials broke ground Monday on a new civil courthouse to replace a historic but physically ailing structure.

Miami-Dade Circuit Chief Judge Bertila Soto told the crowd of judges and dignitaries, "If I danced well, I'd be doing the happy dance."

A 23-story courthouse is due for completion in 2024 on a half-acre across the street from the aging Miami-Dade County Courthouse, which has been in service at 73 W. Flagler St. since 1928. The groundbreaking for a smaller version at the same location was 116 years ago, and the idea was for a building that would last 50 years.

Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin, whose employees work in the old structure, noted, "Over the years, the warts have begun to show." Managers have dealt with basement flooding, asbestos contamination, mold, rain and plumbing leaks, often at the same time.

A public-private partnership led by the county and Plenary Justice Miami LLC agreed in December to build a 640,000-square-foot building with 46 courtrooms, a grand jury suite and a jury assembly room for the 300,000 people summoned for jury duty each year.

Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey, the civil administrative judge who serves as the operations manager for the old courthouse, called it "a day that has been 35 years coming" based on the timing of a recommendation for a replacement.

She and Soto became what Bailey called "Amazonian warriors" to push the project. Left unspoken but aggravating to project boosters was the construction of modern courthouses in the neighboring Broward and  Palm Beach circuits.

A failed courthouse referendum in 2014 revved up Miami's legal community, and Eugene Stearns of Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson galvanized attorneys to get something done.

"I was annoying for a lot of years," he conceded. "We're gathered here to celebrate success for sure."

Stearns commended All Aboard Florida and the Nichols, Brosch, Wurst, Wolfe & Associates architectural firm for conceptualizing a courthouse that "put a face on what could be here." The companies were in the running for the project but lost to Plenary.

The old structure will be positioned for sale in a way that protects its historical and architectural elements.

Overall, the county is expected to pay $852 million for the project over three decades, including $810 million divided into annual installments going to Plenary, which is responsible for construction, operations and maintenance.

County Commissioner Sally Heyman, who was credited with pushing the project through, said the old courthouse was "an edifice that was built in the days of the Model T." She looks forward to "an edifice our founders could not have begun to imagine."