The Fort Lauderdale Police Department is ready to show off its new $165 million home — are you ready to see it?
The modern three-story headquarters will take center stage as the star of the show on Wednesday with a public ribbon-cutting ceremony from 10 a.m. to noon.
“This new headquarters is absolutely the best new home we could ask for,” Police Chief Bill Schultz said Friday. “I can’t thank the voters enough. It’s truly an investment in the future and a testament to our fallen officers, our retired officers and the hard-working current team who walks through these new halls every day.”
The station opened at 1300 W. Broward Blvd. in March, seven years after voters approved a $100 million bond to build it after hearing complaints about chronic roof leaks, faulty air-conditioning and unreliable elevators.
By the time the project broke ground in June 2023, the cost of the new headquarters had increased to $140 million due to inflation, construction delays and structural design changes.
Costs went up again due to a major design flaw discovered during construction in 2024.
In March 2024, hairline cracks began forming along the entire length of a support beam on the top floor. A roof slab on the building’s northwest corner was bending, causing cracks in the concrete.
That problem has since been rectified, city officials say.
The new 191,000-square-foot police station replaces one that was built in 1958 and demolished earlier this year.
Commissioner Steve Glassman says he’s talked to plenty of officers who work in the new building and they are beyond thrilled.
“I hear it all the time,” he said. “The police are very happy. You have to remember what that former headquarters was like. It was a disgrace. This one is new. It’s not full of mold and mildew. It’s got a state-of-the-art crime lab and evidence storage, and modern facilities for training.”
The new Fort Lauderdale Police Department building at 1300 W. Broward Blvd. on Friday. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Unlike the old building and its cramped quarters, there’s plenty of room in the new building for the people who work there, the chief said.
For more than three years, the department was working out of multiple leased buildings and substations throughout the city.
Now, most of them are all back under one very new roof.
“They could not be more ecstatic,” Schultz said. “This facility gives us that extra edge, that extra step to serve our city best and better than we have in the past. For us to be able to have this building, I’m thrilled we were able to provide it for them and all the generations to come.”
The design of the building was led by AECOM, with Moss and Associates serving as the general contractor and Thornton Tomasetti as the structural engineer of record.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan