Kootenai County has leased a stand-alone building in northwest Coeur d’Alene, where it plans to move its public defender’s office, giving it larger space and better security, says Dan Green, Kootenai County commissioner.

The newly leased Lincoln Lacrosse Professional Building, located at 1607 Lincoln Way, has two above-ground stories and a full basement, providing a total of 9,100 square feet of office space. Green says the public defender’s office will move there Jan. 1.

The public defender’s office currently is located in smaller quarters at 400 Northwest Blvd., on the south tip of the Kootenai County government campus.

The Lincoln Lacrosse building is just over a mile north of the campus.

“We would have liked to keep them on campus, but this provides more workspace and enhances security for them,” Green says.

The office, led by Chief Public Defender John Adams, has a staff of 31, including 16 attorneys, Green says.

Jim Koon, managing broker at the Coeur d’Alene office of Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage NAI Black, and Steve Hill, commercial specialist at Coeur d’Alene-based Century 21 Beutler & Associates, negotiated the lease.

Koon says the building, formerly medical offices, can be converted to meet the needs of the public defender’s office.

“It’s hard to get a building with this many offices,” he says.

Green says the three-member Kootenai County Commission hasn’t decided yet on the future of the building on Northwest Boulevard, which the county owns.

The building originally was designed as a pizza restaurant, he says.

He says the building might be appropriate for departments that don’t have a lot of customer traffic, parking requirements, and security issues.