Pima County to buy Downtown Bank of America building

County officials say the purchase will save the county as much as $1 million a year in rent for office space, while allowing more courtrooms to be built in the Superior Court building and reducing the size of a future joint city/county courts complex.

It also will allow the county to sell the former Walgreen’s building for private redevelopment.

The Bank of America building, 33 N. Stone, is the second tallest building Downtown, after the Unisource Energy Tower. The large white tower dominates the Downtown skyline from the north.

The county spends about $500,000 a year renting Downtown office space and expects that amount to reach $2 million within a few years.

But the county can finance the purchase of the Bank of America building for $1.2 million a year.

The first to move into the building likely will be adult probation, which occupies the eighth floor of the Superior Court building. That will allow new courtrooms to be built to ease a space crunch there.

Next will be the other county offices, including the public fiduciary and some public defender’s offices now in the former Walgreen’s building at the corner of North Stone Avenue and East Pennington Street.

The county wants the city to either buy or lease the building and look for a private developer to renovate it, provided that developer restore the historic Montgomery Ward facade.

County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said the county can make $800,000 in historic preservation bond money available to a private developer to work on the facade, but not for other improvements.

County officials said Bank of America tenants there — lawyers, accountants and the bank itself — should not notice any difference.