A deal to sell Rockbridge County's cherished courthouse was approved this week.

It will be sold to a developer who plans to renovate it and lease it to Washington and Lee University.

The county's board of supervisors voted unanimously to sell the courthouse for $225,000 to Rockbridge Partners LLC. The company intends to take advantage of historic tax credits and spend $2.1 million to renovate the building for office space to be used by W&L.

As part of the deal, the building's courtyard is expected to be donated to the city of Lexington so it can continue to be used by the general public.

Construction of a new 63,900-square-foot courthouse and 144-space parking deck began last year. That $29.2 million project is due to be completed by April.

Renovation work on the old courthouse will begin once the new courthouse is occupied. The sale of the old courthouse will be finalized then.

The fate of the historic courthouse has taken a series of turns over the years. For decades, the 112-year-old building on Main Street in downtown Lexington lacked storage space, had outdated wiring and used the same entrance to bring in prisoners as the one used by the general public.

After voters rejected a 2002 referendum to build a new courthouse, the state and the Rockbridge County Circuit Court filed suit against the county supervisors and the Lexington City Council over the decrepit courthouse facilities.

Court-ordered deadlines for constructing a new building soon followed.