Council Approves Police Station Construction At Town Center

The University Place City Council approved its “Plan B” for a at Town Center on Monday night.

The new police station is scheduled for completion the end of November.

On a 6-0 vote, city leaders approved a $568,360 bid from Yi & Associates to complete a second-story, 5,000-square-foot space in the Civic Building that will serve as the police department’s new home. Councilman Javier Figueroa was absent.

It will serve as the department’s home until a permanent tenant who wants the Civic Building space is ready to pay market value for it, and the city secures a permanent home for its police. Officials, however, say that isn’t in the immediate future.

For now, the police department will join the University Place library at Town Center. In 2009, the city signed a contract with West Pierce Fire & Rescue — which owns the building where UP Police is located now — that requires the police department to find a new home by the end of this year.

UP had originally planned to locate the underneath the library. It even paid $52,692 to an architect for the design.

But every bid University Place received to build the basement-level police station cost more than what the city had budgeted, so officials agreed to pay Helix Design Group another $62,000 to produce a cheaper design on the second floor.

City Engineer Jack Ecklund told the UP City Council that the work is scheduled for completion and ready for move-in by the end of November, which gives the police department enough time to move out by the end of the year.