Landlord gives Metro crime lab month to leave

Jace Radke

Friday, April 1, 2005 | 9:42 a.m.

The landlord of the West Charleston Boulevard office park that houses the Metro Police crime lab has told the police department to move out by the end of the month.

Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said that the department has found a new lab location that should be ready to move into in seven months to a year so he is trying to negotiate a one-year extension at the current location to avoid having to move the lab's sensitive equipment twice.

"We've outgrown the lab and that started us looking for an alternative site," Gillespie said of the facilities located on Charleston just east of Rainbow Boulevard.

Metro was served with a notice to vacate the Charleston site after agreeing Monday to a new lease in a larger building on Badura Avenue, south of Interstate 215 and west of Arville Street.

The landlord at the West Charleston property, Executive Development Corporation, wanted Metro to sign a new six-year lease, but after Metro refused and acquired the new property in Southwest Las Vegas, the landlord told the department to have the lab moved by April 30, police said.

If negotiations for the one-year extension fall through, Gillespie said that the department could move the lab equipment to some temporary, smaller lab space, or the department could go to court in an attempt to force the property owner to agree to the one-year extension.

Don Romano, president of Executive Development Corp., did not immediately return calls this morning seeking comment.

The lab houses the majority of Metro's forensic testing machinery and personnel. Fingerprint, DNA and toxicology analysis is done at the lab along with ballistics and other crime scene evidence analysis.

"No matter how we do this there is going to be some delay in our cases because of the technical aspects of what we're moving," Gillespie said.

He added that a one-year lease at the West Charleston facility would help to ensure that the delay is as minimal as possible and make the transition to the new lab facility smoother.

Metro currently pays a rate of $2.51 per square foot at the West Charleston facility. The new facility, which is larger and includes space for the lab to grow, has a lease rate under $2 per square foot, police said.