Wood County's $2.4 million purchase of the Hintgen building should close around Dec. 1, Commissioner Rick Modesitt said.

The county plans to turn the property into a justice center, allowing officials to consolidate the Sheriff's Department, magistrate offices and holding center under one roof. Commissioners said the move will reduce overhead and free up badly needed courthouse office space for other departments.

Modesitt said the federal Bureau of Public Debt currently occupies the Hintgen building, which was appraised at $2.8 million. The federal agency is slated to move by next September. Once the county takes title to the property, Modesitt said the federal government will pay them rent until Public Debt moves out.

"For the next 10 months, we're going to be landlords to the federal government," he said, "which means we'll also net about $400,000 in rent. So that brings our net cost down to about $2 million."

He said the county's architect is already at work on the design plans. While the county doesn't yet know how much renovations will cost, Modesitt said that work easily could run another $2 million or more.

"The driving force on that will be the jail part of the building," he said. "Our goal is to reduce overall operating costs, but building 15 secure jail cells is going to cost a little more money than to just build an office."