The long-gestating downtown land swap is complete, a major milestone that provides new locales for the proposed Eugene City Hall and the county courthouse.

Lane County purchased the vacant City Hall block for $5.4 million, while the city purchased the county-owned "butterfly" parking lot for $2.5 million.

"This is an exciting step forward for our downtown and the community," the city and county said in a joint statement released Friday. "Working together, we are setting the stage for more efficient and accessible government services — including making space for justice with a new courthouse and center for justice, a permanent location for a year-round public farmers’ market, the restoration of our historic gathering space, and a stronger connection to the river. The Town Square is an opportunity to bring back a welcoming, vibrant city center and create a place for people, now and in the future — as our community’s founders envisioned."

The closing documents were signed Thursday and recorded Friday.

The county plans to build a 297,000-square-foot courthouse on the block at Eighth Avenue and Pearl Street, a project carrying an estimated total price tag of $252 million. County commissioners are poised later in the month to refer to the May ballot a bond measure seeking up to $158 million to help pay for the project. The state has budgeted $87.6 million to go toward the project, pending lawmakers' approval during the current session, and previously awarded the project $6.4 million.

The city plans to build the new City Hall on the northern half of the butterfly lot, located across Oak Street from the existing courthouse, and guide development of a year-round home for the Lane County Farmers Market on the southern half.

Those projects will be planned in concert with improvements to the neighboring Park Blocks, downtown's largest public area. The city plans to launch that planning effort in the spring. The budget for the total project still needs to be set.

Work to bring the downtown land swap to fruition began in earnest more than two years ago. The governments, both jointly and individually, went to court three times during that period to bring clarity that the exchange didn't run afoul of the deeds recorded when city founders Eugene and Mary Skinner donated property to establish Eugene as county seat in the 1850s.

In October, a visiting judge provided the ruling they had sought to finalize the land swap. The final steps included an update of the appraisals that increased the sales price for the properties. The price of the City Hall block increased to $5.4 million from nearly $4 million, and the price of the butterfly lot jumped to $2.5 million from $1.8 million.

Follow Christian Hill on Twitter @RGchill. Email christian.hill@registerguard.com.