The Lacey City Council voted unanimously on Thursday, December 21, to award a $43.7 million construction contract to Forma Construction of Olympia for a new two-story police station.
The city opened bids for the police station project on November 16, following seven weeks of advertisement. In total, seven construction companies submitted bids in response.
Lacey's design and construction manager, Ashley Smith, said the city staff recommended awarding Forma Construction of Olympia the contract for $43,697,070.
The contract award is for constructing a new two-story police station building. The facility is 48,601 square feet, with the lower level encompassing 23,867 square feet and the upper level comprising 24,737 square feet. An additional 1,600-square-foot community space is also included, which will feature multi-purpose Emergency Operations Center functionality.
The contract also includes the construction of a 14,934-square-foot training center with shell and site work; a firing range that has eight available lanes; an armory and gun cleaning facilities; simulator and defense tactics training rooms; and a training room.
The new police station will be built adjacent to City Hall on the corner of College Street and 3rd Avenue. The project also includes connecting to 6th Avenue for emergency egress for police officers and emergency responses.
Smith said the project will ready for construction in January 2024. She noted that if the training facility is constructed later, the designs may need to be revised to meet updated energy and building code requirements over time. She said codes are constantly changing, and postponing construction for an extended period would require revising the plans to comply with regulations at the actual buildout. This was presented as an additional consideration for fully funding and constructing the training building concurrently with the main police station project.
Councilmember Lenny Greenstein expressed support to go forward with the contract that includes the full training facility. He believed the regional training center would be a huge asset. He said Lacey would likely recoup some costs from the state or other local jurisdictions utilizing the training center.
Greenstein underscored that Lacey is fully funding the police station project without a tax increase for residents. "The public will not see any increase in their taxes, property tax, sales tax, or anything. It is because of good, conservative, fiscal, responsible budgeting for decades, long before any of us were on council, and on to now. I think that's something we should be proud of. We can do this without having to raise taxes, and there are not too many places that could spend $60 million without raising taxes."
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jimlazar
$45 million for a police station seems like a lot.
The "new" Olympia City Hall cost $35.6 million, and includes a police station as a portion of the first floor.
Yes, I know construction costs have gone up in the past 10 years. It seems a little bit gold-plated to me.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023 Report this
NeckoftheWoods
Jim,
This is a much bigger project than the City Hall/Police Department in Olympia.
Also, as the brief states, they are adding a training facility, which is major need in our county, not just within the City of Lacey.
There were talks of a training center for all law enforcement agencies in our region, where the major stakeholders would have split costs, but ultimately none of those partners stepped up. The City of Lacey saw an opportunity to build a training center, that is within their existing budget, and the training center can be used by any of the other law enforcement agencies in the region, with the City of Lacey being able to charge those agencies for the use.
By doing that, they ensure that the expense of the facility is at least partially recouped, again this is mentioned in the brief you just read.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023 Report this