Mount Prospect Fire Department Moves into new Headquarters

This week, the Mount Prospect Fire Department officially moved into the new Fire Headquarters/Station 13, located at 111 E. Rand Road. The project was completed on schedule and within budget.

"The new Fire Station 13 at 111 E. Rand Road was identified as an ideal location in the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association analysis," stated Fire Chief Brian Lambel. "The new location will improve the department's industry drive time performance measures by 14%. It will also enhance emergency response to Prospect High School and the community north of Euclid Avenue."

The Village Board approved the Fire Headquarters/Station 13 project in 2018 and construction began in 2019. Williams Architects and Nicholas & Associates served as the design and construction teams. The project involved adaptive reuse of an existing building, saving $3.7 million in overall costs versus the construction of a new building. The total project budget of $10,378,000 included the purchase of the land and existing building, design fees and soft costs, hard construction costs, project contingencies, and furniture and fixture purchases. The project was funded through bond sales completed in 2018 and was structured to have zero effect on future tax levies, due to a financing strategy developed by staff and financial consultants, which included refinancing old debt and using Village reserves and moderate use of capitalized interest in the debt service repayment plan.

"Relocation of Fire Headquarters/Station 13 has been a top priority of the Village's strategic plan," said Mayor Arlene Juracek. "We are very excited to see this project come to fruition and are also looking forward to the new Police Headquarters opening later this spring. This move allows both departments to be more efficient and improves their functionality and service to our community."

The decision to relocate both Police and Fire headquarters ties back to a space needs study conducted in 2018 that determined the existing Police side of the facility, which was built in 1993, was functionally inadequate due to space constraints, operational changes, accessibility, and the impact of technology.

Various options were considered for both departments as well as the for facility, and it was determined that relocating both headquarters made the most sense. For police, it would allow them the space, accessibility and technological advances they needed. For the Fire Department, the move would allow for improved response times. It was also determined that relocating Police and Fire facilities from the downtown site allowed for the potential redevelopment of prime real estate that was within the Prospect and Main TIF District.

The Village recently announced a proposal from Greystar Real Estate Advisors to redevelop a portion of "Block 56." This key site in Mount Prospect's downtown, Block 56 is the block bounded by Northwest Highway, Maple Street, Busse Avenue and Emerson Street. The proposed development would include the site of the Police and Fire Headquarters, located at 112 E. Northwest Highway, (which will be relocated to new facilities this spring) and the Chase Bank property at 111 E. Busse Avenue.

"We had a great construction management team for this project," stated Village Manager Michael Cassady. "Mount Prospect business Nicholas and Associates and our project manager architect Mark Rysavy led an "A-Team" of outstanding contractors to complete this project on time and within budget," said Cassady.

For more information about these and other projects, visit the Village web site's Transparency and Fact Check portal at www.mountprospect.org/transparency.