Portsmouth's new police station estimate is $41.8M. Here's a look at early designs
PORTSMOUTH — The City Council got its first look this week at a new preliminary design for a renovated and expanded police station with a project price tag of $41.8 million.
The preliminary cost estimate to renovate the existing station at the City Hall campus and build a two-story addition is about $29 million lower than the $70 million-plus estimates the council received in December on a new station at several potential sites.
City Public Works Director Peter Rice shared the new cost estimate and color massing diagrams with the City Council during a work session Monday night.
The project to build what city officials are calling Portsmouth’s new community policing facility comes in response to concerns raised about the existing station, which is part of the City Hall complex and located in what used to be a hospital.
Portsmouth police station designs are not final
Rice stressed the new police station working group has created a preliminary design.
“This is not a final design. We are not going to be showing you renderings of a finished building,” Rice said. "(It’s) really a massing exercise and it’s determining if this site can accommodate the building we’re looking at.”
The working group is asking the City Council to vote at its June 3 meeting to affirm the current budget and the proposed concept, Rice said.
“You felt that we should keep a campus feel or campus connection with the police force,” Rice said, “and you wanted us to stay within budget.”
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A total of $42.2 million has been identified in the city’s capital improvement plan for the design and construction of the new station, he said.
The proposed two-story addition to the existing station will include 30,872 square feet of space, according to diagrams released by the working group. The total square footage is 49,972, including space in the current station that will be renovated, according to city documents.
New spaces, other features of proposed new police station
The addition, which would be located in front of the existing station along South Mill Pond, would include a new dispatch center, a designated space for detectives, a new patrol officer’s area, a public access area, and a booking and intake area, according to the diagrams and statements by Rice and other officials.
The plan also calls for making traffic two-way going into and out of the City Hall complex off Junkins Avenue.
Police will have a separate two-way ramp into the new station, Rice said.
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Preliminary plans also call for extending a sidewalk up Junkins Avenue and building a new stairway and ADA ramp up from Junkins to the City Hall complex, according to Rice and the preliminary design.
The project could also include the installation of new decorative fencing along the proposed addition, which would also help with security, Rice said.
Rice acknowledged as you drive into the new/expanded police station you “won’t likely see … the North Church or the middle school," which currently can be seen.
Cost breakdown for Portsmouth police station proposal
The breakdown of the preliminary cost estimates includes $3.4 million for site development, $28.2 million for building construction, $3.1 million for design and construction contingency and $6.9 million for soft costs, according to working group numbers.
Construction is estimated to take 24 to 30 months, Rice said.
Soft costs include engineering and permitting fees, he explained.
The estimated cost per square foot is $838, according to Rice, which is down from $1,000 per square foot, the group’s initial estimate.
The savings came from “reusing a portion of the existing City Hall,” Rice said.
But he believes “we still have what we want for the programming needs of the police force. We would like to request a council vote at the June 3rd meeting, just to make sure we’re going in the right direction. Once that is established, the design will get into full swing.”
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Mayor Deaglan McEachern commended the working group for “removing $29 million” from the cost estimate, which he said “was great” and “should not be discounted.”
Police have said they need a new station to address space needs and to avoid having to deal with a series of mold and moisture issues they’ve been fighting in the existing station for several years.
City Councilor Kate Cook pressed officials on the proposed size and cost of the new station.
“I’m really keen to understand exactly what we absolutely need because the taxpayers have to pay for it,” she said during the workshop meeting. “I don’t want to overbuild.”
As she looked at the proposed square footage of the project, Cook said she wants “to make sure that’s appropriate for our force and our force size. A lot of other communities have forces our size but don’t have facilities this size, that’s why I’m asking this question."
Rice and other working group members said they had considered the size of other police stations when working on the design.
Police Chief Mark Newport replied, “I think we’ve gone through this with a fine tooth comb.”
Rice stated this “exercise has been one of continual looking at how do you reduce costs? How do you give value to the residents?
“I’m a resident, I pay taxes, I don’t want to spend money on things that aren’t necessary. But at the same time I’m also really frugal when it comes to investment in public infrastructure, and I want things to last, I want things to function properly,” Rice said.
“The worst thing to do is to do a cheap building and end up paying for it in maintenance and operations,” he added.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: New $41.8M Portsmouth police station plan: Early look at design
