Police, fire, EMS may move to joint headquarters in south Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- City leaders are working to acquire a building off of South Mopac Expressway and Barton Skyway to house headquarters for Austin's police, fire and EMS departments.

"The official term that gets used is that these buildings are suboptimal," said Mayor Kirk Watson about the existing headquarters buildings. "Well, Kirk Watson would refer to them as crummy, pathetic and dirt sorry. They're buildings that need to be replaced."

Chiefs with each public safety department addressed the structural issues at their respective buildings.

Below are photos of the existing buildings and the one the City hopes to acquire, which were shown during Friday's news coverage.

Cost and timeline

Watson said the purchase price for the property is about $108 million, and the City estimates it would spend an additional $13 million to renovate the existing buildings and tailor them to the needs of public safety personnel.

Kimberly Olivares, Austin's deputy CFO, called this an "incredible" price point. She said her office has done several cost analyses, and this is far cheaper than the cost of renovating the current buildings, leasing a new space or building a brand new facility. City Manager T.C. Broadnax said this price point is less than half the cost of what it would take to build a new one.

City Council needs to approve this before City staff can move forward. The acquisition will be addressed at Monday's Public Safety Committee meeting and then go to the full council on Oct. 24.

If it does get approved, Olivares expects the closing process to take about six months, and then the renovations begin. While there's no set date on when the facility would be functional, she said staff plan to operate on a "let's go" timeline, considering this a top priority.

All public safety departments operating out of same space

At present, police headquarters are downtown, EMS headquarters are east of Interstate 35 just north of Lady Bird Lake and fire headquarters are in east Austin on Ed Bluestein Boulevard.

"This consolidation will not only allow us to bring our own leadership together under one facility, but will give us the opportunity to be able to continue to collaborate and work alongside our public safety partners," said EMS Chief Rob Luckritz.

Police Chief Lisa Davis seconded that and added that APD's headquarters don't currently have a meeting space to gather and connect with community members.

"We talk about the value in community engagement and community service , and there's no space in [the current] building to gather," she said.

Assistant Fire Chief Rob Vires said his department's facilities have been housed in a variety of structures over the last 30 years, from a converted residence to an airport hangar.

"The current AFD headquarters is structurally questionable. The building is shifting, leading to cracked walls and ceilings," he said.

There will still be precinct and satellite/field facilities for police, fire and EMS across the city.