Florida Construction News staff writer
The City of Fort Myers broke ground Sept. 22 on a new $109 million police headquarters that will consolidate Police Department operations currently spread across multiple locations.
The three-storey, 176,000-square-foot facility is being built by Wharton-Smith Inc. and is the largest commercial building project undertaken by the city to date.
The headquarters will bring administration, investigations, communications, training, forensic services and community support programs into a single facility.
About 100 to 150 permanent Police Department employees are expected to work in the building, with another 100 officers expected to rotate through during shift changes. Project estimates call for about 250 city employees and 50 to 100 visitors and detainees to move through the facility on a typical day.
The building is designed to accommodate a range of specialized police functions, including a crime scene unit, digital forensic laboratories, property and evidence operations, K-9 facilities, SWAT resources and a 911 communications and dispatch centre.
It will also include virtual and augmented reality laboratories for training, digital forensic laboratories and a Faraday room. Dedicated areas will support drone and unmanned aerial vehicle operations, police vehicle outfitting and an indoor firing range.
The headquarters will have 10 kennels for K-9 units and specialized areas for the bomb squad, gun intelligence, covert operations, polygraph and fingerprint technicians, and evidence teams.
Community-focused services will also be housed in the building, including space for juvenile intervention counsellors, child services, chaplains and Group Violence Intervention staff.
Public training rooms will be available for programs such as safety and hurricane preparedness, while a dedicated press briefing room will provide space for media briefings.
The project is intended to replace the department’s dispersed facilities with a centralized headquarters designed to improve coordination among police divisions and provide additional space for technology, training and specialized operations.
Construction of the headquarters represents a major expansion of the city’s public-safety infrastructure and is expected to provide space for police operations as Fort Myers continues to grow.
