Design rendering courtesy Long Beach Judicial Partners

5:30pm | Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe released the following statement: “I’m thrilled to hear that the new Long Beach courthouse will officially be named in honor of the widely-respected and admired former Governor George Deukmejian, an effort I have been committed to for several years. The Governor is a long-time family friend and mentor to me. This is a well-deserved honor for someone who has given so much to the people of Long Beach and all of California.”

5:00pm | Councilmember Robert Garcia, who represents the area where the Courthouse will be built, said: “The Governor has dedicated his life to Long Beach, our state and our country. It makes sense to name this new Downtown icon, after our own Long Beach icon, Governor Deukmejian.”

3:50pm | The new downtown courthouse to be built in Long Beach will be named after former California Governor and Long Beach resident George Deukmejian. The Judicial Council of California approved a motion to name the building the “George Deukmejian Courthouse” today during their meeting in Sacramento.

“I’m very honored indeed,” Governor Deukmejian told the Long Beach Post today when reached by telephone. “I started practicing law in Long Beach in 1958 and I never imagined that one day they’d name a courthouse after me.”

Financing for the $490 million building was secured last December, and construction is slated to begin this year with completion aimed for 2013. The current Long Beach Courthouse is more than 50 years old and complaints of dilapidation have been piling up (no pun intended) in recent years.

The future building has made national headlines for its innovative public-private partnership with a “performance-based infrastructure” method. The statewide Administrative Office of the Courts signed a 35-year services agreement with private Long Beach Judicial Partners to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the courthouse.

Deukmejian, who says he is now “trying to be retired,” served as Governor from 1983-91, as well as Attorney General from ’79-83 and State Assemblymember from ’63-67.

There are also two streets in Long Beach named after the former Governor: Deukmejian Drive near Blair Field and Deukmejian Way through the campus of Cal State Long Beach.

“It’s very nice and very humbling,” he said. “The amount of support that I’ve received over the years here has made this a wonderful place and wonderful community for me and my wife to raise our children and now our grandchildren.”