The new Kenmore police headquarters that opens next week has a larger conference room for hosting members of the public, better accessibility for people with disabilities, a secure garage bay for bringing prisoners in and out and, for the first time, a locker room for female officers.
But Kenmore Police Chief T.J. Phillips said his favorite part of the new building is its skylight.
“The idea is just to get more light in the building. That was a focus, that was an architectural design,” Phillips said on a recent tour, as sunshine poured into the central atrium. “I think they did a great job. And, again, it just makes the building more welcoming and a better place to be for our staff.”
Kenmore police and civilian employees will move from their temporary workspace into the new building on Monday, Phillips said.
The modern, two-story structure replaces the department’s cramped, 74-year-old headquarters. Crews tore down the original building to make way for the new headquarters on the same site on Elmwood Avenue across from Mang Park.
Next week’s opening concludes a nearly five-year saga as village leaders sought the best location and design for the new police headquarters. Originally expected to cost $6 million, the price tag has now passed $11 million, though Kenmore officials say the final result is worth the wait and taxpayer investment.
“That’s what I want to broadcast to our residents and anybody else that comes in: This is a good, safe community and the police aren’t going anywhere,” Kenmore Mayor Patrick Mang said in an interview. “And I think that’s important for people to know that.”
Replaces 1951 building
Kenmore officials said village police had long outgrown the headquarters building at 2395 Elmwood Ave. that opened in 1951.
But it wasn’t easy for the village to settle on a path forward.
Kenmore leaders weighed adding a second story to the existing structure; expanding onto a neighboring property; or moving the department to the Kenmore Community Center in Mang Park.
None, they said in 2022, made as much sense as expanding onto the Insty-Prints property at 2385 Elmwood Ave., just south of police headquarters.
When the Insty-Prints owner refused offers to sell, the village considered taking control of the property through eminent domain.
However, following pushback from some business owners and residents, Mang and the Village Board dropped the idea.
The village went back to the plan to add a second story to the existing headquarters before pivoting again.
“It would have been more expensive to do that,” Phillips said this week, given the building’s age.
Upgrades abound
Phillips said he’s struck by how many residents kept a close eye on the progress of construction, which began in spring 2024. He said, during his visits to the site, neighbors asked when they can take a tour of the building.
“Not just yet,” Phillips said he replied, “But we’ll get everybody in.”
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The sleek, tan-colored exterior features brick, limestone and modular cast stone. Inside, shades of blue and gray predominate.
During Wednesday’s tour, contractors were putting in the finishing touches.
Drills whined in the background and the smell of fresh paint was noticeable. Blueprints detailing where furniture and equipment still needed to go were laid out on the floor of the soaring central atrium, near a wall that features a large reproduction of a Kenmore police badge.
The first floor has an interview room, a room to meet with a victim’s advocate, an evidence lab and other offices.
Prisoners will enter through a secured sallyport, with access controlled by public safety dispatchers. The prisoner space is set off from the public spaces, Phillips said, something that’s important because suspects and victims are often at headquarters at the same time.
A large garage bay will allow the department to, for example, hold car seat safety checks indoors during the cold weather months, Phillips said.
The new headquarters has three cells for prisoners in two separate cellblocks. This allows Kenmore police to hold male and female prisoners at the same time, which wasn’t possible before.
The second floor has offices for Phillips, the chief’s administrative assistant, the department’s captains and a conference room that can host up to 35 people for public forums and events.
Phillips said he didn’t want command staff to feel disconnected from rank-and-file officers, which is another reason he discussed an open atrium with the project architects.
“I didn’t want to feel like I could be working from home,” Phillips said.
$11 million final cost
The basement level hosts the officers’ briefing room, along with a gym, locker rooms, the armory and a shooting range. Kenmore has three female officers, out of 26 total, and three female dispatchers, among 45 sworn and civilian employees, but previously didn’t have a women’s locker room.
Phillips said he sought design ideas from chiefs of other police departments, including in Batavia, that are in the process of building their own new headquarters.
He said it didn’t make a difference in response time whether the department stayed at the same site, because most officers respond to calls while on patrol in their vehicles.
But, Phillips said, “This is like a traditional precinct. We have people walking here on a daily basis. They come in here for their handicapped parking tags. They come in here to file complaints. We have a lot of visitors, and we wanted to make sure that it was readily accessible to them. And this location always provided that.”
Village police during construction worked out of renovated space in the community center in Mang Park. The village spent $629,000 to prepare the building for use as a temporary police headquarters and to gate off a dedicated police parking lot in the park near Mang Pool.
The village still is deciding what to do with the community center once the department moves out. Mang said some nonprofits may take space there.
“So, that’s a possibility. And we plan on actually looking for grant money. Because we want to make it a cooling and a warming place, because we have a generator now,” said the mayor, who was on crutches after falling from a ladder and fracturing his left tibia last week.
The village initially borrowed $6.3 million for the police headquarters project before voting in December 2023 to increase that amount to $11 million.
Village Clerk-Treasurer Kathleen Johnson said the final figure, including improvements to the community center, is just under $11.5 million.
The village has received $1.6 million in federal, state and county grants to cover a portion of project expenses, Johnson said.
“It’s an investment in public safety,” Phillips said, “and we have a building here for the next 100 years, and we can grow and continue to keep Kenmore a safe place.”
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Stephen T. Watson
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