Construction beginning next month on new St. Charles police station

With the demolition of the Valley Shopping Center now complete, St. Charles officials anticipate construction on the city's new police station will begin early next month.

The multimillion-dollar facility at 1515 W. Main St. is on track to be ready for occupancy in late 2019, Chief James Keegan said. The station is expected to include a wellness center, a community event room and other state-of-the-art features, making the space more operationally efficient than the police department's current headquarters downtown, he said.

A groundbreaking ceremony, open to the public, is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 23. The project's 13- to 15-month construction cycle likely will commence in the first week of August, Keegan said.

"(We want) to deliver a quality police department that the entire community can be proud of for generations to come," he said. "Our goal is to be on time and under budget."

Contractors are finishing preliminary work on the site of the former Valley Shopping Center, the demolition of which was completed about two weeks ahead of schedule, Keegan said. Officials hope the police station's exterior can be finished by this winter so contractors can work through the season on interior construction.

Bids for the building's structure and shell were opened Friday and are expected to be considered by the city council this month, Keegan said. The city plans to seek bids for the third and final project phase - building finishes and interior build-out - by this fall.

In addition to staying on schedule, Keegan said he believes the project has the potential to remain on or under its budget of $24.6 million. Initial cost estimates came in a couple of million dollars higher, but project leaders have been working to close the gap without significantly changing the station's scope or design.

The recently opened construction bids also appear to be on the low end, Keegan said, though officials won't know for sure until they meet with contractors and put together a final bid package.

"Our staff was initially very optimistic that we'd be trending back to where we need to be," he said. "We're excited and optimistic that we're going to get our project going."