HADLEY — As the current lease for the Hadley Juvenile Court expires, the state is seeking proposals for courthouse quarters that would be occupied beginning next January.

The state’s request for proposal (RFP) calls for a 10-year lease of 16,300 square feet of usable court spaces in either Northampton or Hadley. The RFP only affects the Hadley session of the Franklin-Hampshire Counties Juvenile Court at 116 Russell St. on Route 9, not the court’s Greenfield and Belchertown sessions, according to state Trial Court spokeswoman Erika Gully-Santiago. 

Gully-Santiago said the state can sign leases for a maximum of 10 years by law, and that the state has used all renewal periods available for the juvenile court’s Hadley lease. 

According to the RFP, the state has planned for two 1,800 square-foot courtrooms, a holding cell, a judge’s lobby area and space for the clerk-magistrate and probation departments. 

As of now, Hampshire County Juvenile Court jury cases are heard in Northampton District Court and Franklin County Juvenile Court jury cases are heard at the Greenfield Juvenile Court, according to a state website. But the new RFP calls for 780 square feet of jury pool room areas, as well as a 300-square-foot jury deliberation area.

All of the current court proceedings in Hadley will be moved to the new premises once it is ready for occupancy, Gully-Santiago said. 

“If the existing privately owned leased site in Hadley does not submit a bid or is not selected in the RFP process, the proceedings will be transferred to the new site,” she said.

When asked if the state was looking for an existing building for the court, Gully-Santiago said, “The Trial Court is seeking RFP responses from bidders to lease space that can meet the requirements of the RFP and that are financially advantageous to the Trial Court.”

The Hadley Juvenile Court serves Amherst, Chesterfield, Cummington, Easthampton, Goshen, Hadley, Hatfield, Huntington, Middlefield, Northampton, Pelham, Plainfield, Southampton, South Hadley, Westhampton, Williamsburg and Worthington.

Proposals must be submitted to the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance’s Office of Leasing and State Office Planning by 2 p.m. on Jan. 31.

Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.