Today the City of Reno started phase 1 of 2 phases, to build Reno's new Public Safety Center. Part of the project includes renovating the existing building to house the Reno Police Department headquarters. The new space is located on 955 Kuenzli Street, at the old Reno Gazette Journal Building. The City says the total construction cost for the building is going to be about $52 million. The Pennington foundation also gave the city funding of $5 million to start construction on the center, and phase one received a bid approved by The City at about $19 million. They say the building will be about 114,000 square feet.
Back in April of 2021 the Reno City Council took the step forward to approve the funding plan for the Public Safety Center. The City Mayor says Police Chief Soto is a huge part of making this construction a reality.
Hillary Schieve, the Mayor of the City of Reno comments to Chief Soto "Many chiefs before you that tried to make this reality... and you did, you made it a reality."
The Reno Police Department was originally built for a very small amount of people, to the point where some of the officers now have to work inside of old jail cells in the station.
Jason Soto, the Police Chief for the Reno Police Department explains "Our police department in 1947 was about 40 people, toady the Reno Police Department is about 500 employees in total."
This space is also going to help provide mental health services, after school programs and a victims center. Phase 2 will begin in January of 2023 with interior site improvements including control equipment, an interview room, paging systems, a radio antenna, furniture, solar panels and new roofs for both the building and parking lot.
Soto says "We really want to continue to integrate our community into our police department."
Phase 2 is expected to be completed by January 2024, which is also when they expect to be open to the public.
Soto tells us "This space behind us will allow us to put it all under one roof and be more efficient at what we do."
They say this new building will be able to help the growing city and station.
Soto mentions "We have to continue to grow with the growth of our city."
