Little Rock wants to purchase the McFadden Building on West Markham Street and turn it into a new Police Department headquarters.
The city has been planning to build a new headquarters for years. It included funding for the project in the list of improvements that would be funded out of the sales tax increase approved by voters in 2011.
Revenue from the three-eighths-percent capital improvement portion of that tax is slowly accruing each year over the 10-year life of the tax. Collections will stop in 2022. All of the other public-safety-related projects on the list have been sped up by short-term financing.
The city has promised $9 million toward a new police headquarters and district court building. The new court building is not planned to be located with the police headquarters in the McFadden Building.
If approved by the Little Rock Board of Directors at Tuesday’s board meeting, the city will pay $956,000 for the 15,000-square-foot building at 615 W. Markham St. and renovate it.
The building is across the street from the current headquarters at 700 W. Markham St. and down the street from City Hall at 500 W. Markham St.
“It’s important that the city controls that block. We own most of the real estate in the area. We will tear down the current police headquarters. It provides a lot of opportunity to think outside of the box with what we might like to see there,” City Manager Bruce Moore told city directors.
Ward 6 City Director Doris Wright said the building has been on the market for a while, and she wanted to make sure renovation was viable. Moore assured her that inspections have been completed, and it’s “a solid building.”
Officials also want to move the Police Department’s property room into the new building. That will require extra “bells and whistles” because of security and temperature storage requirements, Moore said.
The city is at a financial advantage to be able to renovate a building instead of build a new one, Moore said.
What will be done with the current police building and where the new courts building will be located are yet to be decided.
At-large City Director Dean Kumpuris applauded the city staff on finding a building to renovate.
“It’s more user-friendly than the building we have now. It will be a gentler presence for police. It’s also an opportunity to show people that property downtown and properties in the area need to be rehabbed and can successfully be rehabbed. If we don’t lead the way, no one else is,” Kumpuris said.