Alleged lawbreakers in the Greenville area will be on display, so to speak, in a former car dealership showroom by early next year.

Mercer County commissioners voted Thursday to buy 3,000 square feet of commercial office space on North Race Street in downtown Greenville for a district court.

The North Race Street location -- former longtime home to Wolfe Motors until the early 1980s and then, for about a decade, to C & B Machine Shop -- will be about twice as large as the current Clinton Street office of District Justice William L. Fagley.

Commissioners said they had been hunting for more adequate office space for Fagley and District Justice Henry J. Russo, Hermitage, for several years. Both deal with heavy caseloads in cramped, outdated quarters.

Commissioners agreed to buy the Greenville office space from Michael Yurisic for $297,000. Plans for Russo's new office have yet to be nailed down but it reportedly will be located in Farrell.

Money for the new offices was earmarked in a $34 million bond issue floated by commissioners last year for several projects, including courthouse renovations and construction of a new jail.

The 6,000-square-foot North Race Street building in Greenville is being renovated and should be ready for arraignments and hearings by January, commissioners said.

The county hopes to offset the cost of buying space in the building by selling the Clinton Street office. The 1,500-square-foot unit -- one of three in the Starr Building Condominium, the others are law and dental offices -- has been appraised at $80,000. Commissioners said several parties have expressed interest in buying the space.