A $34 million Sarasota police headquarters

SARASOTA - A contractor is expected to break ground later this month on the new $34 million police headquarters downtown.

City commissioners will vote Monday on an agreement with Naples-based Kraft Construction Company to set the project's maximum cost at $34 million -- $3 million less than previous estimates.

Competition among contractors bidding for the project dropped the cost, said Sarasota Police Capt. Lucius Bonner.

Crews are scheduled to start clearing the site later this month, and the new police station is expected to open in spring 2010.

"If it is approved Monday, things will start happening around there Tuesday," Bonner said.

The six-story building will be adjacent to the current police station. The old headquarters will remain open during construction. The planned 102,000-square-foot headquarters is designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, and will serve as the city's emergency operations center.

Sixty-five percent of the voters who cast ballots in the March 2007 election decided to increase property taxes to fund the new station, after police and city officials mounted a campaign that cast the department's current headquarters on Ringling Boulevard as cramped and decrepit beyond repair.

"It will bring us to the 21st century, compared to this fortress here now," Bonner said.