The city of Eastpointe is getting a new $22 million police station and 38th District Court building, replacing an existing structure that opened more than six decades ago.
There also will be an additional $1.9 million for furniture and $1.2 million for required HVAC and soundproofing systems for a gun range to be built near the new building, making the total project just over $25 million, City Manager Ryan Madis said Wednesday, July 15. He called the project “transformational” for the city.
City and state officials and others celebrated the police and court building groundbreaking July 10 at the site on 9 Mile Road, east of Gratiot Avenue, and adjacent to the existing structure. The groundbreaking came more than three years after the initial committee met to start discussing what was needed.
City Council unanimously approved the just over $22 million contract for the new building at its June 16 meeting.
Madis said the new two-story building will be 44,000 square feet compared to the just over 20,000 square feet in the existing structure. He said nearly 100 people work in the building, which is used 24 hours a day.
Police will be on the first floor and the court on the second floor, he said, and there will be two courtrooms, with the anticipation that the court can have a second judge in the future to handle the city’s caseload. Technology will be built into the building, unlike at the existing structure.
Madis said there is anticipated to be $9 million from the state for the project − $8 million approved in the state budget for 2025, according to the city’s website, with Madis saying another $1 million may be on the way. There is also a $10 million bond for the building, Finance Director Randall Blum said during a July 7 City Council meeting.
Madis said the rest of the funding would come from the city’s general fund. He said there is no additional millage to taxpayers to fund the building.
The project is to start in the next week or so, with the goal of holding court in the new building in late 2027, possibly September or October of that year.
Madis said the current building opened solely as a police station and was added on to for the court.
The building opened in 1960 and an extension for the court was built in 1994, according to an appropriations request for legislatively directed spending items on the Michigan Senate’s website. The police and court have outgrown the facility, it said, adding that the state recently approved the addition of a second full-time judge because of the court’s significant caseload, which will require additional space.
The request said the city purchased a vacant auto parts store immediately to the east of the current building and demolished the site for the new facility.
Madis said the current police and court building will be demolished in late 2027. He said the gun range for city police officers will be built near the current building’s footprint. He said the city may rent out the range to other law enforcement agencies in the future.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @challreporter.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to the Free Press.
Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New $22M police and court building, gun range set for Eastpointe
Reporting by Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Christina Hall, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
