The City of Green Bay is currently negotiating a deal to purchase the former Green Bay Press Gazette building and some adjacent parking lots. The goal is to convert the building into a new home for the Green Bay Police Department. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The City of Green Bay may have found a solution to the needed replacement of the Police Department’s main building.
Next week, the city’s Finance Committee will consider purchasing the former Green Bay Press-Gazette building, the next step in relocating and modernizing the city’s police station.
It’s no secret that the Green Bay Police Department needs a new location.
“We’ve known for some time that the facility they’re currently in is not the quality we expect for our police officers and the work they have to do. But at the same time, we don’t have an unlimited checkbook, do we? So we’ve been very fiscally responsible in selecting potential locations,” said Mayor Eric Genrich.
One of these locations is the former Green Bay Press-Gazette building.
The city is in the process of negotiating a purchase agreement with the building’s owner for the building and some additional parking spaces. In addition to the $3.6 million cash payment for the building and land, which would come from the city’s fund, Green Bay would also swap three city-owned lots with the developer.
These properties include Fire Stations 1 and 3. Due to plumbing issues, it was necessary to relocate the fire department’s administrative offices from Station 1, and the building at Station 3 was too old, leading to discussions about its closure.
Although discussions are already underway about building a new fire station in the Broadway district, which would also include residential and retail space, the plans are not yet final.
When the city purchased the former Press-Gazette building, it stated that it would house only the police department.
Mayor Genrich says, “We partnered with a consulting firm to do a space needs analysis for City Hall, the Municipal Court, and previously the existing police department. Now we can shift gears and hire them to figure out what needs to be done to improve the Press-Gazette building. However, we are in a good position to move forward with that analysis.”
The cost of the renovation has not yet been determined, but it is expected to be more cost-effective than starting from scratch.
The mayor said, “It’s going to cost tens of millions of dollars, right? But if you were to build a new police department, it would be over $50 million. We hope to spend significantly less than that.”
The mayor is confident that the city can convert the property into a police station, but if that doesn’t work, he says there are contingency plans for other redevelopment options.
“We are always in dire need of housing, especially downtown and other parts of the city, so I think this would be an option,” he said.
The proposal to purchase the former Press-Gazette building still requires approval from several city committees and the full city council before the deal can go ahead.
