St. Petersburg will be the new permanent home of the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
In a news release Thursday, House Speaker Chris Sprowls announced the new courthouse will be located at the Sebring Building at 525 Mirror Lake Drive N.
It will be called the Bernie McCabe Courthouse in Pinellas County in honor of the former Pinellas-Pasco state attorney who died Jan. 1, 2021.
“The establishment of the Bernie McCabe Courthouse in Pinellas County is an important step in addressing the unique needs of the Second District,” Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, said in the release. “This courthouse will serve as a physical symbol of McCabe’s deep legacy of devotion to justice and to Pinellas County. There is no one more deserving of this honor than the late Bernie McCabe — my friend, my mentor, and a stalwart public servant.”
Currently, cases are heard in a classroom at the Stetson Law Center in downtown Tampa, along with a courthouse in Lakeland in which workers became sick due to mold infestation, according to the release.
The Florida Legislature approved the new courthouse — along with a $50 million investment spearheaded by Sprowls — during last year's legislative session, the release said.
“I appreciate the leadership of Speaker Sprowls as we worked on this important infrastructure project last session," Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, said in the release. "Bernie McCabe was a good man and a pillar of the community. He is remembered for his fairness and integrity over four decades of service, and it is certainly fitting that the new courthouse bear his name. I am pleased to see this important project moving forward."
McCabe was state prosecutor for the 6th Judicial Circuit, serving Pinellas and Pasco counties, for nearly three decades.
