York County superior and district courts will begin moving into a new consolidated courthouse in Biddeford on Friday.

The $65 million York Judicial Center replaces an aging courthouse in Alfred and consolidates district courts in Biddeford, Springvale and York. Court officials say the Alfred courthouse – built in 1806, expanded in the 1850s, and then rebuilt in 1934 after a fire – has not met the needs of the court for years.

The consolidation is part of a larger goal of the Maine Judicial Branch to create efficiencies in the court system.

The moving process starts Friday with the superior court and is expected to take two and a half weeks. During the transition, the clerks’ offices at each court will be temporarily unavailable at different times. The judicial center will be fully open to the public by May 3.

“We have been carefully planning this move for months. Our overarching aim is to minimize any disruption to the public and the bar in accessing York County courts,” Julie Howard, manager of operations for York County Courts, said in a statement.

The superior court will be closed from April 14-19, but emergency assistance will be available at the current district court locations. The Biddeford District Court will close on April 21 and the Springvale and York district courts are slated to close on April 28.

The York Judicial Center clerk’s office will be closed during the Biddeford move-in on April 24 and 25. It will be closed again except for emergency filings and protection from abuse complaints on May 1 and 2 while the other district courts move into the building.

The 115,000-square-foot judicial center was built on a 12-acre parcel along Route 1 that was purchased from the city of Biddeford for $810,000. The site was chosen by a commission of judges, lawmakers, attorneys and law enforcement after the Maine Legislature in 2016 approved borrowing $95 million to build or renovate courthouses in York, Oxford and Knox counties.

During the planning process, neighbors spoke out against the project and said the three-story building does not fit with the character of the neighborhood, raising concerns about the size, placement of parking lots, light pollution and stormwater runoff. But city officials approved a contract zone to allow the project to move forward and construction began in December 2020.

The York County District Attorney’s Office will move from the Alfred courthouse to a new space on Graham Street in Biddeford this spring.

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