Police HQ proposed

After years of rapid growth, the Metropolitan Police Department is bulging at the seams.

It outgrew its space inside Las Vegas City Hall long ago, forcing some employees to work in converted storage rooms. The rest of the agency's 5,100 workers are scattered among more than 50 offices around the valley, often meaning more drive time than face time for employees of the state's largest police agency.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie wants to change that.

On Monday, he unveiled a plan to consolidate many of the department's far flung offices and bureaus into one location at the corner of Alta Drive and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

The proposed campus of three office buildings and a parking garage would save time and gasoline costs associated with driving to and from various locations, improve communication and give the Police Department a centralized headquarters for the first time in its 35-year existence, police officials said.

"This would give us a place to call home," Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy said.

The closest thing the department has to a headquarters is 70,000 square feet of space it leases at Las Vegas City Hall, which has been home to the sheriff for decades. The rest of the department is scattered around the Las Vegas Valley.

The proposed headquarters would include more than 370,000 square feet of office space in two four-story buildings and one five-story building. It would include a multi-level parking garage and room to add more buildings in the future. About 1,400 employees would work in the complex if it opens in late 2011.

The headquarters would not replace patrol substations around the valley.

Under the plan, developer Mark L. Fine would build the office complex and rent it to the Police Department under a 30-year lease with an option for the city of Las Vegas or Clark County to buy the property before the lease ends.

No financial details were released because negotiations were ongoing, but Gillespie said the deal wouldn't go through if the terms didn't make financial sense for his agency. Negotiations were expected to wrap up within 30 days.

Police officials said the new headquarters would save the agency the roughly $5.5 million it now spends to rent office space each year. Although the new lease would likely exceed that cost, it would be worth it, police officials said.

"This is really about efficiency. It's about doing the right thing for our department," McCurdy said.

The proposed headquarters would save money by reducing or eliminating drive time for department employees who travel between many of the agency's offices and bureaus.

Communication and efficiency would also be improved because employees could meet each other face to face more easily, officials said.

The public also would notice a difference with fingerprinting and other police services placed in a central location, they said.

At Monday afternoon's meeting of the Metropolitan Police Department Committee on Fiscal Affairs, police leaders told the board of Las Vegas city council members and county commission members it was time to move forward despite the tough economic times.

"It's probably never a good time to come before you for a project like this because it costs money," McCurdy told the committee.

Among police officials' biggest worries was the availability of land close to downtown Las Vegas, which is home to courts and various government agencies. The proposed site sits on 14.5 acres near Charleston Boulevard and Interstate 15 and allows for plenty of parking and room to expand, officials said.

To find that much available land, the Police Department would have to look to the south end of the valley, far from a centralized location, they said.

"We can't sit and wait because there's no guarantee this land will be there," Gillespie said.

The Police Department looked at taking over City Hall once the city of Las Vegas relocates, but the decades-old building is only 265,000 square feet, has limitations with its technological infrastructure and could be affected by the upcoming widening of U.S. Highway 95, police said.

And Las Vegas officials have other plans for City Hall and several adjoining land parcels, city spokeswoman Diana Paul said in an e-mail.

"Although Metro has never been told that the City Hall property is off the table for their purposes, the city's hope is to keep much of those holdings intact with the desire of selling a large parcel to a prospective developer," she wrote.

Moving to the old county courthouse site was also out of the question because of its small size. A headquarters on the 2.75-acre block would have to be a high-rise building, which would cost more, and include an underground parking garage, which could be affected by the water table, McCurdy said.

The proposed headquarters complex had the support of several committee members, including Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese.

"We have to do it, and we have to do it now," Reese said.

County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani voiced her opposition to using leases and said she needed more information before supporting the plan.

Gillespie said more details would be available within 30 days.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.