Philadelphia Police to Move to New Headquarters
It was announced earlier this week that the former home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News would become the new Police Administration Building, cancelling plans made in the last couple of years for the cops to move to a West Philadelphia building. According to officials, the new headquarters on 400 N. Broad St. was chosen for several good reasons: a better location in the central part of the city, more parking, and a large interior that will be able to house a number of law enforcement agencies under one roof.
The police have purchased the former home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News to use as a headquarters.
Word is that officers will be happy to move from the outdated, too-small building at 750 Race St., popularly known at the Roundhouse, even though it is going to take until spring of 2020 to get the move accomplished. According to the Inquirer: “Also moving into the building will be Philadelphia’s morgue; the city’s toxicology lab; office functions currently spread across various sites; the emergency dispatch center; and the Sixth and Ninth Police District stations, now in Chinatown and the Art Museum area.”
The former proposed site for the new police headquarters was the former Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. building at 4601 Market St. Although the city has already sunk $50,000 in renovation funds into that building, it is 100,000 square feet smaller than the Broad St. building and would not have been able to accommodate the dispatch center and district stations.
Police Commissioner Richard Ross says that having multiple city law enforcement agencies under one roof will save time for police, leading to more patrol time. The new location is also easier to access by highway for many officers who live in the Northeast part of the city.
To offset the costs of the new headquarters, the city will sell the Roundhouse property, where police have been based since 1963, for redevelopment, as well as the Medical Examiner’s Office on University Avenue near Civic Center Boulevard, and the Sixth District building at 11th and Vine Streets. In time, they will have profits from the sale of the Provident Mutual building as well.
