Construction on the new headquarters for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department – just a few blocks from Symphony Park at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Alta Drive – is on schedule.

The 390,000-square-foot, three-building office complex and multilevel parking structure, designed by KKE of Nevada, sits on 14 acres. The new facility has more than five times the space of the headquarters Metro currently occupies inside City Hall and will help Metro to centralize and consolidate its administrative staff, which now operates out of several small offices throughout the Las Vegas Valley. When the facility opens in 2011, approximately 1,400 employees will move into the new building.

According to Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy, bringing all administrative functions under one roof will allow Metro to better serve the Las Vegas community and operate with greater efficiency overall.

“Often times people need to access various bureaus within the agency, and now they won’t have to drive all over the city to do that. If they need to meet with a detective and also access police records, it’s all in one central location,” said McCurdy. “We also look forward to a more collaborative environment at all levels. Management will be more familiar with employees and better understand the challenges they face day-to-day. That gives us the opportunity for a lot of synergy in our management and operations that currently we don’t always have. Less time behind the wheel means more time getting the job done and meeting the public’s needs. It's beneficial to everyone involved.”

Developer Mark L. Fine & Associates is working with Clark County and the city of Las Vegas under a lease-purchase pact, giving Metro a purchase option for fair market value after three years. In the meantime, the annual rent of $12.2 million (roughly $2.35 per square foot) will be paid jointly by the city and county.

McCurdy is eagerly awaiting the project’s completion next year. “I’m a native Nevadan, and it’s exciting to be a part of the development taking place downtown, especially alongside such great projects as The Smith Center for the Performing Arts."

Rendering provided by Mark L. Fine & Associates: The future Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters.