Government
BY BEN THOMPSON
Council considers $120M public safety HQ in Southwest Austin Austin City Council is voting in October on a $120.5 million plan to convert Southwest Austin o ces into a new joint police, re and emergency medical services headquarters. Current situation City leaders and sta have been planning for
years to upgrade Austin’s public safety department facilities now viewed as obsolete and falling into disrepair. The current headquarters are each housed in decades-old buildings with maintenance and acces- sibility issues, according to the city. Those include: • Mechanical and wastewater issues, and a lack of hot water, su cient parking and employee amenities at downtown’s 104,425-square-foot APD facility • Foundation and accessibility problems at AFD’s “woefully insu cient” 103,800-square-foot east side headquarters that also houses some police and EMS operations • Mechanical failures, outdated sanitary and safety systems and limited parking in the “highly constrained” 71,093-square-foot EMS o ces east of downtown that also include other city o ces. Mayor Kirk Watson said the buildings are in “crummy, pathetic, dirt sorry” condition and have long needed to be replaced. What’s happening City o cials on Oct. 11 announced plans to buy a 391,000-square-foot o ce campus on Barton Skyway, o MoPac south of downtown. The buildings are located on about 14 acres at 1501-1601 S. MoPac with parking garages and other amenities. Watson said the garages could also be used for public parking during festivals and events. The proposal includes a $107.89 million acquisi- tion, $9.9 million for design work and $3 million for renovations. Council will vote on Oct. 24, after press time. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said the move would complete a longtime city vision of housing APD, AFD and ATCEMS together. Deputy CFO Kim Olivares also said local o ce market conditions allowed Austin to land an “incred- ible” price tag for the purchase; the city estimates building a comparable facility from scratch would cost up to $240 million. The details If approved, the purchase will be funded through certi cates of obligation, which allow governments to issue debt without voter approval. The city used
An o ce campus located o MoPac south of downtown may be converted into a combined headquarters for Austin’s police, re and emergency medical services departments.
COURTESY CITY OF AUSTIN
the same approach for its recent acquisition of Tokyo Electron’s Southeast Austin o ce campus. Bringing all public safety personnel under one roof will “signi cantly enhance” emergency response and communications between the departments, according to the city, with added space for training, information-sharing and other operations. The property is expected to meet the three departments’ current and future growth needs for o ce space, and will not serve as a police, re or EMS station. “We anticipate the joint public safety HQ will naturally lead to improved collaboration among the departments which can have a positive impact on operations,” a city spokesperson said in an email. What’s next If the purchase is approved, Olivares said about six months of review would be needed before reno- vations begin. Estimated completion and move-in dates will be set after that early planning. “We are going to be on a ‘let’s go’ kind of a timeline,” she said. “We don’t want to sit on this by any means.” After the eventual relocations of APD, AFD and EMS in the coming years, o cials also said the city could explore new opportunities for the city-owned headquarter properties now valued at tens of millions of dollars in total.
Purchase plan The city’s debt-backed acquisition would include:
$107.6M property purchase $9.9M for design planning $3M for initial renovations
Total: $120.5M
The 13.83-acre campus includes 390,963 square feet of o ces and more than 1,500 parking spaces
SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTIN COMMUNITY IMPACT
Current Proposed Public safety presence
AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT
AUSTIN FIRE DEPARTMENT
MOPAC
AUSTIN TRAVIS COUNTY EMS
NEW PUBLIC SAFETY HQ
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COLORADO RIVER
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