![Cleveland plans to leave its current police headquarters at the downtown Justice Center. [Nick Castele / ideastream]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b0c59f5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/979x520+0+0/resize/840x446!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F5%2F31%2F0531clepolicehq.jpg)
Cleveland officials say the storage space, parking and technology potential of Cleveland.com’s downtown office drew them to the site as a new police headquarters.
Legislation authorizing the project moved through Cleveland City Council’s safety committee on Wednesday. The city plans to buy the building and have it redeveloped at an overall cost of $60 million.
According to a site analysis shared with city council, the property offers 631 parking spaces and 80,000 square feet of storage space. It was the highest-ranked proposal, coming in above an earlier police headquarters at 2001 Payne.
Read the full analysis document here.
Chief Calvin Williams told council that the current headquarters at the downtown Justice Center is outdated.
“We would like to get out of that and get into a building that is a 21st century building that has the technology capabilities, what we term as a campus type of feel,” he said.
The building at 1801 Superior Ave. was built in the year 2000. It was once home to the Plain Dealer’s newsroom and now houses Cleveland.com and other tenants. All other tenants will be moving out, and police will start moving in as space becomes available, officials told council.
Developers Fred Geis, Jason Laver and Rico Pietro will buy the building from the Plain Dealer and sell it to the city. The developers plan to start work on the building this summer, with an anticipated completion date of March 31, 2019.
