More info about Metro HQ emerging, but still no price tag

By Abigail Goldman

Monday, June 23, 2008 | 1:10 p.m.

With all the tension of a bad suspense thriller, Metro police have yet to reveal a cost estimate for the new headquarters the department proposes for downtown Vegas, off Alta Drive and Martin Luther King Drive.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie says his people are still crunching numbers, and need another two weeks to come up with anything worth repeating. This means that even the fiscal affairs committee, which is to hear the building proposal this afternoon, will not be getting an idea of the price until a later date.

What the members of committees, and Clark County citizens will get an idea of, however, are some building basics the sheriff shared with the Sun this morning, as part of his media tour aimed at building public support for a project that will take a considerable amount of public money tax dollars (though, again, we won't know how many millions we're talking until next month.)

So here are some highlights:

Metro wants to bring 24 different police divisions together on the site, which is almost 15 acres. Those divisions include the sheriff's office,the robbery/homicide bureau, the financial/property crimes bureau, gang crimes bureau, the crimes against youth and family bureau, the crime scene investigation and forensics lab, the special investigations section, personnel and payroll sections, the records bureau, the finance and accounting offices, the budget/purchasing section, the office of public information and a satellite fingerprinting section, among others.

Currently, the department spends $5.59 million a year to lease the buildings it hopes to consolidate, Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy said.

The campus-style headquarters would consist of three different buildings; two four-story and one five-story, all closely situated. There are 2.2 additional acres adjacent to the proposed development police are eyeing for future expansion. Mark L. Fine and Associates is the developer for the project.

The headquarters would be financed with a 30-year lease with an option for the city and/or county to purchase, though Gillespie suggested that local government hasn't been to eager to buy things for Metro in recent history.

The proposed buildings would be able to house more than 1,400 employees - enough space to last Metro at least 15 years, McCurdy told Sun staff. After that 15 years, the department would start eying expansion to an adjacent lot.

The department spent around $100,000 on a site analysis and feasibility study, conducted by Ward and Howes Associates. That study details the needs and space deficits facing different department sections, and notes that overall, the department is suffering from a lack of conference space, storage space and just space in general.

That same study also suggests that Gillespie and Undersheriff Rod Jett get a private bath and shower attached to their respective offices, but when questioned about that particular architectural feature, both men nearly rolled their eyes, shook their heads and said they weren't expecting either of those features, and frankly, didn't care if they got them or not.