Does the Kansas Bureau of Investigation need a new headquarters building in Topeka?

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is in the early stages of evaluating whether the agency needs a new headquarters — and how much it would cost to build one compared to renovating its current Topeka facilities.

The agency has an open request for proposals for a comprehensive needs assessment. Part of that study is assessing what renovations the KBI headquarters may need or if building a new facility makes more sense.

KBI director Tony Mattivi indicated that his preference is a new headquarters.

"We know the science and we know the numbers," Mattivi said. "We're not going to prejudge anything. We're going to give the needs assessment a chance to tell us what really needs to be accomplished. But in my view, I don't see a solution that matches a new facility."

The needs assessment covers all KBI facilities statewide. Paul Weisgerber, the KBI chief financial officer, said that includes identifying how space can be used in a more economical way, which buildings need renovated, the financial costs and the prioritization.

"The needs assessment isn't just looking at the headquarters in Topeka," Mattivi said. "It's looking at all nine physical locations we have all across the state."

The assessment will also look at personnel, which Weisgerber said could identify understaffed areas.

The tentative timeline calls for the KBI getting the assessment by Oct. 31.

That would mean any recommendations would be available before the legislative session starts in January. It also might be enough time for a potential project proposal to make it into agency budget requests sent to the governor for her proposal to the Legislature.

"I would like very much to have a handle on our needs going into next legislative session," Mattivi said.

KBI headquarters is 'at capacity'

The KBI has been headquartered at 1620 S.W. Tyler Street since 1984, and later added the adjacent annex building at 1621 S.W. Topeka Blvd.

About 100 employees work out of the main building, and another 30 who have a hybrid work arrangement. The annex building houses 76 staff across three shifts who share the same desk space.

The two buildings have a combined 85,000 square feet of space, but that isn't enough.

"We are really at capacity for this space," Weisgerber said.

The agency has already moved some storage off site. There is a lease for 7,500 square feet of storage for supplies and vehicles. Case records are also stored with a record retention vendor due to lack of space. The KBI would rather the storage be at the same location as the headquarters.

Weisgerber said the KBI needs more like 130,000-150,000 square feet, and "it's really not" feasible to turn the current property into that amount of space.

Shawnee County property records show the property is appraised at $4.3 million. Records also show the KBI owns some nearby empty lots, which officials said were purchased before the decision was made to move the laboratory to Washburn University's campus.

The KBI likely has three solutions. A renovation of the existing facilities could be an option, as could acquiring additional space in the city. But it seems clear to KBI leaders that a new building is the preferred option.

"It's not ideal, but a world could exist in which we stay here and renovate, and then we get some additional space somewhere else," Weisgerber said. "But I think ultimately, probably where we will land is it's going to be not economical to renovate this space. But we don't know that and we need to do our due diligence to figure out, 'OK, what are our needs and how do those needs fit within this facility?'"

Mattivi indicated a new headquarters would likely be in Topeka but not at the current property, although it is too early to know. It is also too early to know what the cost comparisons would be.

"There's no foregone conclusion," Mattivi said. "We want the needs assessment because we genuinely want to see what an outsider thinks coming in. But to me, that seems to be the direction that is going to be indicated. And so we're having some very preliminary discussions along those lines."

Could Kansas build new joint headquarters for KBI and KHP?

Mattivi said the Kansas Highway Patrol headquarters — which is housed in a leased, downtown building at S.W. Seventh and Jackson — faces similar challenges as the KBI's.

"We know that we're not the only state law enforcement agency that's in this boat," Mattivi said. "So we'd have had some very preliminary discussions about what a new building might look like, and what it what other players might be interested and able to come to the table to increase the efficiencies for the state as a whole."

That could mean moving the KBI and KHP into a shared building.

"Something that we're very interested in pursuing is the possibility of a consolidated state law enforcement headquarters," he said.

"There are a variety of capital improvement projects that KHP is contemplating as we begin early preparations for the next budget cycle, including a long-term comprehensive plan funded by the legislature in April for the training and communications center footprint in Salina," Capt. Candice Breshears of the KHP said in a statement. "One thing is certain, and that is the constant need to invest in the long-term sustainability of all state agencies.

"To that end, very preliminary conversations among state law enforcement components regarding opportunities to collaborate have occurred; however, these must be balanced with the needs of other executive branch agencies to ensure the most efficient use of resources."

KBI headquarters is a nearly century-old school building

Mattivi, Weisgerber and KBI spokesperson Melissa Underwood provided The Capital-Journal with a tour of the KBI headquarters last week.

The KBI is headquartered in the old Crane Junior High School at S.W. 17th and Tyler. Some of the staff work out of an adjacent building at the corner of S.W. 17th and Topeka.

Built in 1929, the old school is older than the KBI, which was founded in 1939.

The repurposed school auditorium is now a multipurpose space, for such activities as retirement parties. It is also where they do new agent trainings for several weeks, making do in a small space without many modern amenities.

"One of the things we balance frequently is the amount of investment in the facility plus how much dollars we have available," Weisgerber said. "We looked at renovating this space a number of years ago, and it came in at well over $100,000. It just wasn't feasible for us to do that."

The high cost, he said, reflects putting new technology into a building that wasn't designed for it.

"We really need a purpose built facility," he said.

Mattivi contrasted the KBI's agent training space to that of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"The new ATF facility down in Wichita has a brand new training facility inside and when you look at it, it's everything from the seating, to the table arrangements, to the modular furniture, to the audio video capabilities, to the acoustics," he said. "It's hard to describe everything that's there that isn't here, right? I mean, that is everything that this room is not."

The RFP notes the headquarters lacks a firing range, locker rooms, equipment lockers and a workout facility.

The joint fentanyl impact team's regional agents work out of the school's old attic.

"We have space that was never intended for human occupancy — it was intended for file storage — that now is being used by agents that are doing some of the most important work that law enforcement agents are doing in the state right now, which is trying to combat the fentanyl epidemic," Mattivi said.

The plan is to eventually move the fentanyl task force to space on the ground floor where the KBI laboratory used to be before the lab was moved in 2015 to a new $55 million facility on the Washburn University campus.

"I still can't believe that everything that's over Washburn basically was shoehorned into this space," Mattivi said.

The old lab space is currently undergoing work.

"We're just now starting to pull out some of the lab counters and facilities and trying to make this more workable agent space right now," Underwood said. "But of course, that goes to the crux of our problem: How much money do we put into this building when we know it has issues?"

Those rooms need roughly $25,000 worth of work to make it useable as agent office space, and even then it is only viewed as a "workable" short-term solution.

"This is an empty space that to do it right would take an absorbent amount of dollars to actually renovate and do in its totality," Weisgerber said. "So we're just trying to take little bits and pieces of that, renovate it to the best of our ability and make it usable for our employees."

Some agent office space exists on the ground floor that was remodeled in 2018.

"It's good, but it's not the same as having custom-built space," Mattivi said. "It's not as efficient as having a building that is built to suit."

The child victims task force is part of that renovated area. There is an interview room designed to have a softer feel and an adjoining lobby space with stuffed animals for children to play with — plus a comfort dog, Count.

There are no other dedicated interview rooms in the entire building. Mattivi said a new custom-built facility would "absolutely" have more interview rooms.

There is no command post in the building and only two conference rooms. The RFP notes the conference rooms lack the technology needed for remote testimony.

When the white powder incident happened last summer — where multiple elected officials received suspicious mail — one of those conference rooms was commandeered into a command center.

"This is what we used as a statewide command post as we started gathering, seizing and processing almost 200 letters with an unknown substance that were a threat to legislators," Mattivi said, standing in the conference room. "This is where we ran that out of, and that's really inadequate — and in my view, it's unacceptable for an organization like this."

A single conference room wasn't conducive to the situation, which required communication among multiple local, state and federal agencies during the first time ever that every bomb squad and hazmat team in the state was mobilized to respond to a single event.

The conference room doesn't have communication stations, meaning some staff took calls in the hallway. It needed extension cords running around the room for people working on laptops. There were no computer screens or smart boards for running leads.

Current KBI buildings need extensive renovations

Mattivi called the facility's space use "chopped up and inefficient."

"When you have a facility that's built for a specific purpose, you're going to get a lot more use out of every square foot," he said. "There's a lot of wasted space in here."

In addition to not having enough space and modern technology and amenities, the physical infrastructure is showing its age.

The pneumatic HVAC can't keep up. Weisgerber said the 40-year-old rubber tubing has deteriorated to the point that the thermostats don't work. The facility now has some window air-conditioning units.

Additionally, the building was designed before air conditioning was widely available, so the architecture of an open air area was intended to provide passive cooling to the school. That now-covered space likely couldn't be converted into something more useable due to the way rainwater drains from the roof.

The building has problems with leaks from both the roof and pipes. The original cast iron pipes are corroding. They have sometimes leaked in the basement space where agent evidence is stored.

In one hallway, the solution to a leaky ceiling was to replace the tile with a contraption that funnels water into a hose that drains into a nearby sink.

Those leaks are the closest thing the building has to sprinklers, as it lacks a fire suppression system.

In his office, Weisgerber has tiles from the roof that have fallen off. He said the building needs a new roof.

"There's a laundry list of all of those things, coupled with we're really scrunched for space, where it's at what point how much money do you put into it?" he said.

Access is controlled to the parking garage. The structure also has spots where concrete has broken and fallen on top of vehicles.

Weisgerber said major renovation work was done on the parking garage several years ago because it was structurally deficient. Now, the KBI again needs an engineering firm to see if the continuing deterioration can be rectified.

While not all of the security concerns are public information, the RFP identified issues with staff regularly having to walk between buildings, as well as exterior security concerns.

That second building on the property houses the information services division. Those employees manage fingerprinting, criminal history records, crime statistics and the civil asset forfeiture and offender registration databases.

"Having that in a separate building, even this close, is not ideal — but we were out of room," Mattivi said.

The property is part of a residential neighborhood and adjacent to a major street corner with a bus stop. But passersby may notice there is no perimeter fence.

"The fact that we're located in a residential neighborhood is not optimal," Mattivi said.

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas Bureau of Investigation may need new Topeka headquarters