City Council approves $50.7 million for police HQ

By Bob Pepalis

Sandy Springs approved a $50.7 million design development budget for the city’s future police headquarters and municipal court building at 620 Morgan Falls Road.

City Council members, sitting in their dual role as the Public Facilities Authority, approved the budget during a Feb. 7 meeting.

Construction should begin in June, Dave Wells, director of Facilities/Capital Construction and Building Operations, said. It would be substantially completed by December 2024.

The project includes the renovation of an existing four-story office building plus additions for the municipal court and a sally port entry off the secure parking lot on the left side of the building. An open-air courtyard would be in the middle between the existing building and the new additions, Yara Rymer Bond of Jericho Design Group told the City Council. Parking lot and site improvements are included.

Charlie Whiting of Reeves and Young, the company contracted for the design development, said the construction was priced at just more than $36 million for the building and site work at the Morgan Falls Road site.

Project includes fleet maintenance building

The project includes $3.43 million for a fleet maintenance building that will be located at 8475 Roswell Road. An earlier proposal called for it to be built at the Morgan Falls site. Moving the fleet maintenance operations to a different site potentially will reduce the overall project costs as a recent land purchase by the city will enable traditional stormwater detention measures, Bond said. The city recently bought two parcels of land that will add another half-acre to the property that provides the space for the stormwater detention, Bond said.

The fleet maintenance building will be a pre-engineered metal building, with brick on the side facing Roswell Road, she said.

The rest of the budgeted funding would cover construction management costs, contingency funds, a security system and $3 million set aside for furniture, fixtures and equipment.

The design would create a 110,763-square-foot police headquarters, a courthouse/lobby addition with 11,295 square feet of space and 8,484 square feet for the sally port addition that will be external to the building.

The existing building is a brick and glass veneer and steel-frame structure with 106,678 square feet of space. It was built in 1990 and has been through one significant remodel. The city bought the Morgan Falls property in October 2020 for $10.9 million.

Fire Station One and a shooting range with parking are proposed projects that are not included in this funding, Bond said.