City Council moves to complete purchase of combined public safety headquarters
Monday, October 28, 2024 by
Chad Swiatecki The city is moving ahead with the planned purchase of a combined public safety campus located in four existing office buildings on South MoPac Expressway in District 8.
Late during Thursday’s City Council meeting, after several hours of public comment ahead of the approval of a new contract with Austin Police Association, three items passed on the consent agenda related to the purchase and renovation of the two properties for $120.5 million.
The items were: an ordinance to amend the capital budget of the Financial Services Department to accommodate the purchase; a resolution that indicates the city will finance the purchase through tax-exempt bonds; a resolution for staff to move ahead with the purchase of the campus – which totals more than 390,000 square feet – at a purchase price of just over $107 million.
The purchase resolution was passed with an amendment from Council Member Alison Alter calling for the use of solar panels, green infrastructure and other sustainable items throughout the campus. The amendment also called for the money saved from maintenance on the existing headquarters’ to be directed toward sustainability improvements at other city buildings.
The purchase will allow the city to move the Austin Police Department, Austin Fire Department and Emergency Services out of an assortment of deteriorating buildings around the city that by most measures have exceeded their usable life.
“Currently all three of these public safety units are housed in facilities that are in deep need of repair, that we’re spending a lot of money right now to try to keep them up to date or we should be spending money if people are going to stay there, and that money will be saved and we want that to be reinvested in other buildings for city climate goals,” Alter said. “From an environmental perspective just to do whatever we can for this building. It’s prime for solar and there are other opportunities that we think could be deployed in this area.”
The deal has also been made into a political issue in the city’s mayoral race, with candidate Doug Greco publicizing the donation from property developer and owner Brandywine Realty Trust to the Austin Leadership political action committee that is supporting the reelection campaign of Mayor Kirk Watson.
Prior to the consent agenda vote, Watson addressed the issue.
“There’s an independent third-party PAC out there that received a contribution from the owners of that building that is not my PAC, and I was actually unaware of any donation that had been made because it’s an independent third-party PAC … I don’t pay attention to who donates to that,” he said. “I’ve checked with the city attorney’s office and the city attorney’s office has pointed out that it is not a conflict of interest.”
During public comment ahead of the vote, the purchase was criticized because of the perceived lack of policy and planning support of the campus’ location near an expressway, as well as its location in an environmentally significant area.
“Actions like this used to be accompanied by policy support from the (Imagine Austin) Comprehensive Plan, which is important because this is really inconsistent with the city’s plans if a comprehensive plan is meant to guide the City Council’s actions,” environmentalist Bobby Levinski said.
“The items lack any such policy justifications because the location of a major city facility like this on a highway service road defies all urban planning principles and goals that the City Council has set over the last decade.”
Bill Bunch, executive director of Save Our Springs Alliance, said the campus could endanger the nearby Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer.
“No Council before this one would ever dream of buying big office buildings on the Barton Springs recharge zone, just wouldn’t have happened … and it should be for you too for that reason alone,” he said.
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