{"id":15389,"date":"2025-12-04T22:28:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T05:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-durango-build-a-city-hall-and-police-station-by-october-2028-a-firm-says-yes\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:47:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:47:48","slug":"can-durango-build-a-city-hall-and-police-station-by-october-2028-a-firm-says-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-durango-build-a-city-hall-and-police-station-by-october-2028-a-firm-says-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Durango build a city hall and police station by October 2028? A firm says yes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Al
Al Harper\u2019s proposal for a conference, arts and cultural center at the Durango School District 9-R Administration Building, 201 E. 12th St., includes a 10,000-square-foot grand hall that could seat 600 people or accommodate 450 people for a sit-down meal. Harper is the owner of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.<\/span>Terrance Siemon\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

If all goes as planned, Durango\u2019s new city hall and police station could be finished by October 2028, according to Artaic Group, a management firm guiding the city through the project.<\/p>\n

Artaic Group Senior Project Manager John Usery told City Council last month that schematic designs \u2013 about 30% complete \u2013 are underway and should be presented in February or March, along with initial cost estimates.<\/p>\n

Voters approved a $61 million bond measure in April to fund the renovation and construction of a joint city hall and police station at the historic former high school at 201 E. 12th. St. The city has outgrown its space inside the current City Hall and police station, which are located at East Second Avenue and 10th Street.<\/p>\n

The targeted end date of October 2028 accounts for the completion of the city hall, the police department as well as additional renovations and additions such as an underground parking structure.<\/p>\n

The city hall is scheduled to be completed first, with a ribbon-cutting scheduled for October 2027. DPD\u2019s new station is expected to be completed in July 2028, with all other project aspects planned to be completed that fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith projects of this scale, there\u2019s always something that comes up and modifies the completion date,\u201d said City Manager Jos\u00e9 Madrigal.<\/p>\n

Although the timeline is rough and intended to be flexible, Usery said \u201ctime is money\u201d and the goal to be as efficient with taxpayers\u2019 dollars as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our goal to bring this within budget and within schedule,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there are hiccups, it\u2019s our responsibility to identify those early on where we can respond to those as opposed to later where we would experience a more impactful schedule delay.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, the city announced it received a AA+ rating from Standard & Poor\u2019s Global Ratings, allowing the city to borrow money at lower interest rates to finance construction of the new joint facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not something we always see on these projects from municipalities,\u201d Usery said. \u201cThat opens up a lot of doors for us in terms of increasing the amount of bond proceeds that we receive as well as lowering interest rates and stretching those taxpayer dollars further, getting our bang for our buck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engineering company HDR and FCI Constructors were awarded the roles of project architect and construction manager at risk, respectively, after a national search for candidates. Both companies operate locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese projects are financed by taxpayer dollars. It\u2019s really important that we reinvest that money through this project back into the community as much as possible,\u201d Usery said.<\/p>\n

HDR has recently worked on early construction at Durango Mesa Park and FCI recently completed construction of Durango Fire Protection District\u2019s downtown Station No. 2, he said.<\/p>\n

HDR is working closely with Denver-based Roth Sheppard Architects. Usery said the team has experience with historical renovations and police building projects such as:<\/p>\n

The historical renovation of the Wyoming State Capitol.Work on the city of Firestone\u2019s police department and municipal court.Work on the city\u2019s justice center in Lenexa, Kansas.Work on the historical Gunnison County Courthouse.<\/div>\n

FCI\u2019s experience includes:<\/p>\n

The Ouray County Courthouse and Sheriff\u2019s Office.The Northglenn City Hall.The Carbon County Courthouse.The city of Evans police station.<\/div>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Initial designs and cost estimates expected in February or March<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[459,950,28,1686,1351,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-construction-and-property","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-heavy-construction","tag-public-finance","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77143,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15389\/revisions\/77143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15389"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}