The price tag of a more than a seven-year project to restore Polk County’s historic courthouse and centralize court services in downtown Des Moines has grown to $99 million — much more than voters bargained for when they approved the project by referendum in 2013.
The original estimate to restore the courthouse at 500 Mulberry St., build the Justice Center at 222 Fifth Ave. and convert the old Polk County Jail into a five-story criminal courthouse at 111 Sixth Ave. was $81 million.