Downtown Riverfront Property

Background

The former Police Department facility located downtown along the east riverfront, north of the  Municipal Building, brings an opportunity for reuse and redevelopment. Its reuse has been under consideration since the Police Department moved from the site to a new station in 2019. A brief timeline of the process is below: 

In 2021, the City submitted a Request for Concepts for interested developers to submit proposals for use of the former police station site. After careful review several presentations and discussions, the City Council voted to reject all four proposals received and gave staff direction to hire a firm to conduct a feasibility study to evaluate potential reuses for the site.

In 2023, the City issued a Request for Proposals seeking a qualified firm to conduct a feasibility study and Solomon Cordwell Buenz was selected. 

Feasibility Study

The scope of the feasibility study is limited to a technical analysis of the site and includes environmental assessment, geotechnical analysis, floodplain mitigation analysis, utility analysis, demolition costs, traffic study, and parking analysis. 

The feasibility study includes a detailed analysis of the site and clearly defines various constraints, both above grade and below grade.

Based on the site constraints, the consultant developed a series of potential development scenarios. These range from adaptive reuse of the existing structure to new residential, commercial, and mixed-use concepts. The study then evaluates each scenarios against several criteria: financial feasibility, density and use intensity, site activation, parking, traffic, site maintenance, and potential revenue. This assessment provides a framework for weighing the trade-offs of each option to better understand potential impacts. The study does not recommend any scenario, but provides a framework and visual examples illustrating how the site could be developed if the City and community determine a preferred direction. 

To assist in the decision-making process, the City will be soliciting feedback from the community in the near future. 

Review the Downtown Site Feasibility Study(PDF, 12MB) here.

Next Steps

Staff presented the feasibility study to the Planning & Development Committee members on October 13, 2025. A recording of the meeting can be viewed here. 

Following the presentation, committee members directed staff to plan a public engagement campaign for the community to provide input on the reuse of the former police station site. The public engagement campaign is currently in development.