READING, Pa. – Berks County is planning a major move. Monday, officials revealed plans for a new services center on Penn Street in Reading, and an updated judicial center at the county’s current home.
The building at 600 Penn St. in Reading has been through different eras — from a Pomeroy’s department store, to a Wells Fargo bank. Now it could become the new Berks County Services Center by 2028.
“Then we would renovate the services center where we are today, and that would become the judicial center,” said Larry Medaglia, deputy chief operations officer.
This decision was made after a survey on renovating the nearly-century-old county courthouse came back with cost estimates of more than $130 million.
“Largely, that’s because once we got inside, behind the walls, took a look at the infrastructure, we recognized it’s just far too expensive to do,” Medaglia said.
So, the county looked at the Shuman Development-owned building on Penn Street.
The decision follows years of planning surrounding needed renovations to the Berks County Services Center and the Berks County Courthouse.
“It’s a modern building. It will meet our needs,” Medaglia said. “We’ll end up with about 7,000 square feet of space for growth and expansion, which is great.”
The renovated building would house several departments including the solicitor’s office, human resources, and the commissioners. The current services center would then see those departments move out to make way for that building’s next chapter.
“We can then bring all of the operations from the courts over to this building (600 Penn St.), and there’s enough space for them to be able to expand in the future,” Medaglia said.
The services center could become a judicial center by 2031, housing the courts, judges’ chambers, the sheriff’s office and more.
“We recognize this is going to be very costly. We’re still looking at spending about $95 million to do that the acquisition and renovations of these two buildings,” Medaglia said. “By our calculations, working with the budget department, this is a cost avoidance of about $70 million.”