City considers acquiring new combined HQ for police, fire and EMS

Next week, City Council will consider approving a $107.8 million allocation to acquire an office campus along South MoPac Expressway that would serve as a consolidated headquarters for the city’s public safety agencies, which are located in outdated and cramped facilities across the city.

If approved, the headquarters would house the Austin Police Department, Austin Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services in two four-story Class A office buildings with four wings located on 13.83 acres. The campus, which was discussed at City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting on Monday, totals 390,000 square feet and includes two five-level parking garages.

Deputy CFO Kimberly Olivares outlined the severe condition of the current public safety facilities, which she said are costly to maintain. APD headquarters downtown, in particular, is overcrowded and in disrepair, while the AFD and EMS facilities suffer from foundation issues and inadequate space.

“The current headquarters facilities have long exceeded their useful life, and they continue to deteriorate. Public access is minimal at best at each of them,” she said. “When we look back over history, public safety departments have each been requesting new headquarters individually for well over a decade, if not more time.”

In addition to the purchase price of the campus, which is still partially occupied by office tenants, the city plans to spend $9.9 million for design work and $3 million in initial renovation costs.

The city has long acknowledged the need for new public safety facilities, with various departments pushing for headquarters upgrades for over a decade. Initial plans to redevelop its Rutherford Lane campus in East Austin were deemed cost-prohibitive, with estimates reaching up to $300 million. Olivares said the purchase price of $107.6 million for the South MoPac property is far more cost-effective than constructing a new facility from scratch, which is forecast to exceed $230 million.

During the meeting, Olivares listed the problems with deterioration and overcrowding at the facilities used by the three agencies separately, all of which are at least close to five decades old.

The South MoPac campus, located in District 8, was built in 1999-2000, with Olivares noting “the functional age is more like 10 to 15 years because of the degree of maintenance that has occurred over time.”

In analyzing the possibility of overhauling the Rutherford campus, Olivares said staff determined the departments would need about 400,000 square feet total, in line with the size of the prospective new facility.

Mayoral candidate Doug Greco questioned the motivation of purchasing property from Brandywine Realty Trust, which made a donation to the Austin Leadership political action committee that is supporting Mayor Kirk Watson’s reelection.

“The mayor’s failure to disclose this relationship fits a pattern of behind-the-scenes unilateral decision-making and lack of concern for public trust. Our public safety deserves the best facilities, but our city deserves a mayor who feels accountable to taxpayers and avoids even the appearance of impropriety or a pay-for-play deal.”

Watson said he doesn’t closely monitor fundraising for the PAC and had been unaware of the donation, which was announced Oct. 7.

“I don’t go look at what their numbers are, because there’s no coordination between my campaign and the PAC,” Watson said.

Bill Bunch, executive director of Save Our Springs Alliance, said the city has downplayed issues with the campus’ proximity to the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer.

“There’s no City Council before this one in 40 years who would ever even consider locating a large number of city employees out on the recharge zone of the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer and on the Barton Creek watershed. You shouldn’t do it here. This is offensive,” he said of the proposed purchase, which was announced last Friday as a potential item for City Council.

“There’s no request-for-proposal to look at options, they’re talking about it being three miles from City Hall. Like that’s a good thing. How many millions of square feet of empty office space are a matter of a few blocks from (City Hall) that are sprinkled around the city that are accessible to the employees who are actually going to work in this facility?”

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Posted In: Public Safety, District 8