The design phase is set to begin next month for the massive new 50-acre El Paso Public Safety Complex that will consolidate the training academies for the police and fire departments.
El Paso City Council this month unanimously approved a $128 million design-build contract with Jordan Foster Construction for a project backed by voters in the $413 million public safety bond election of 2019.
“This represents one of the most significant public safety infrastructure investments in the city’s history,” Yvette Hernandez, a deputy city manager and city engineer, told the City Council at its March 3 meeting.
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An artist rendering shows the new El Paso public safety training academy building for the El Paso police and fire departments to be built on Global Reach Drive in El Paso, Texas. The public safety complex is planned to be completed in 2029.
The complex will include a new El Paso Fire Department headquarters, a vehicle maintenance and logistics center, and a state-of-the-art academy campus for police and firefighters that is capable of hosting regionwide training, city officials said. The project is expected to be completed in 2029.
The new Public Safety Complex will be built on 50 acres of 70 acres of city-owned airport desert land designated for the project near industrial sites on Global Reach Drive, between George Perry Boulevard and north of Montana Avenue.
Hernandez explained that 50 acres is an area comparable in size to a chunk of Downtown covering San Jacinto Plaza (North Mesa Street) to the rear of the convention center and ballpark (Durango Street), bounded by San Antonio Avenue in the south and Missouri Avenue in the north.
The new El Paso Public Safety Complex, including police and firefighter training academies, will be built on Global Reach Drive on airport land between Montana Avenue and George Perry Boulevard. It is scheduled to be completed in 2029.
In 2021, nature conservationists pushed back when the city initially looked at building the training complex at the foot of the Franklin Mountains at the edge of the North Hills neighborhood.
Construction on airport land will save more than $20 million in costs due to terrain differences and the availability of utilities, Hernandez added.
The Public Safety Complex project has a $25 million shortfall that will be made up using savings from other projects in the 2019 bond and from the sale of unspecified city capital assets, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Comptroller Margarita Marin told the council.
The current El Paso Police Academy is on Scenic Drive and the El Paso Fire Department Training Academy is at Ascarate Park. The city has yet to decide what will become of those sites when the new center opens.
What will the new El Paso Public Safety Complex feature?
The new training center will replace aging, space-limited facilities with state-of-the-art amenities that will improve efficiency, readiness and coordination, city, fire and police officials said. Among the features will be:
El Paso Fire Department
Multi-story fire-training tower.
Vehicle maintenance garage, logistics building and storage building.
El Paso Police Department
Advance-tech indoor shooting range and a tactical training area.
Driver emergency vehicle operations course.
Training shared areas
Classroom building with the newest technology, a law enforcement simulator and a fitness gym.
Hogan’s Alley, a realistic training environment, featuring a mock office, a bar, a convenience store and a residential area for various scenarios.
El Paso Fire Chief Jonathan Killings,
El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas and Fire Chief Jonathan Killings said at the council meeting that their respective departments work well together and the new training complex is a needed upgrade. Killings added that the new center could help attract other departments in the region to come train in El Paso.
“El Paso’s location —we are out here kind of like an urban island — a really good position for regional training for far West Texas, southern New Mexico and even into Arizona,” Killings told City Council.
When will the El Paso Public Safety Complex open?
April 2026 — Start of design.
February 2027 — Early construction and site development, including mass excavation, ground work, grading and utilities.
Summer 2027 — Construction starts, taking about two years to complete project.
2029 — Project completion.
The new El Paso Public Safety Complex will include the police and firefighter training academy. In this photo, El Paso firefighters battle a fire at a shoe store on South El Paso Street in Downtown on Dec. 12, 2022.
The construction of the Public Safety Complex faced delays and challenges because of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, construction market uncertainty and inflation, Hernandez said, but the project should be finished within the goal of 10 years since the bond was approved by voters.
“As El Paso’s largest and longest-standing contractor, Jordan Foster Construction brings deep community ties and a proud legacy of service to a project dedicated to supporting the first responders who keep our town and our people safe,” Ash Kamath, vice president, Building Group of Jordan Foster Construction, said in a statement.
Jordan Foster Construction is partnering on the project with public safety designers Architects Design Group out of Winter Park, Florida, and CDA Architects of El Paso.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: New El Paso Public Safety Complex police, fire academy plans advance