Denton County recently announced plans for the former Sally Beauty headquarters located in Denton.
Denton County purchased the building at 3001 Colorado Blvd. about one year ago. Now that Sally is moving operations to Plano, the county has announced plans to move its civil court to this building.
鈥淲e are hopeful that we鈥檒l be able to start construction next year,鈥� Kevin Falconer, Denton County Precinct 2 commissioner, said.
Because Denton County is rapidly growing, the county government has to expand to keep up. Falconer said the county approved a request for another district court a couple of years ago but that there was not enough room for this expansion.
鈥淲e try to keep it as efficient as possible in our county government,鈥� Falconer said. 鈥淏ut we have to grow as well.鈥�
The county considered a few options including constructing an entirely new building and adding an expansion to an existing county building. Both of these options would have been significantly more expensive.
Instead, they decided to purchase a separate building. Sally Beauty is still working out of that building as it prepares to transition to new offices, which gives the county time to prepare to work on the building.
鈥淲e think it was a really strategic way to solve this problem,鈥� Falconer said.
He said that because of COVID-19, many offices use hybrid work schedules and therefore do not always need a large office building.
鈥淓ven if it weren鈥檛 for the courts building issue, we have so much need for office space.鈥� Falconer said. 鈥淏ecause much of what we do is not something we can do in a virtual manner.鈥�
Falconer said that district courts are typically multi-jurisdictional, meaning they include both civil and criminal courts. But, to account for space, the county decided to separate its civil and criminal courts.
Although this project is a group effort, Falconer is particularly passionate about it because of his experience as an architect.
鈥淲e want to provide top notch service whether it鈥檚 our passport office, vehicle registrations or the courts,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e going to be able to do that, but do it in a quicker and, quite frankly, more cost-effective way.鈥�