A vacant plot on Chesterfield Airport Road is set to become the future home of a joint police training facility serving four counties, after the commission overseeing the project purchased the land from Phase II Investments for $5 million. The purchase marks the biggest step yet for a project that has been in the works since state lawmakers set aside $50 million to build it.
According to STLtoday.com, the facility is intended to serve as a joint state-of-the-art training center for police departments in St. Charles, Franklin, Jefferson and St. Louis counties, with St. Louis County expected to be the primary tenant. Attorney Dudley McCarter said the commission considered five or six properties before settling on the Chesterfield site as its top choice, the outlet reported.
Construction is slated to begin in spring 2027 and take about two years to complete, per the same report. Once finished, the center is expected to provide training for hundreds of officers from departments across the region.
What the Facility Will Include
The planned campus is packed with training infrastructure: a 20-lane firing range, two shoot houses, an obstacle course, virtual training simulators, classrooms, an auditorium, a high-speed driving track, a running track and two gymnasiums, the article notes. Earlier planning documents described an even broader footprint. A 2025 report from Spectrum News said plans called for an 80-acre outdoor training area, urban street replicas, virtual-reality simulations and a shooting range, and that departments would cover operating costs through a fee structure based on the number of recruits.
That same Spectrum News report indicated the exact site had not yet been finalized last year, though it was expected to land near Chesterfield as the most central point among the participating counties. The Chesterfield Airport Road purchase now confirms that expectation, a year after the location remained an open question.
How the Project Got Funded
The $50 million backing the facility comes from state funds already set aside for the project, according to a civic alert from St. Charles County. That funding was approved by the Missouri Legislature and signed into law by then-Governor Mike Parson in June 2024, the county said.
St. Charles County also noted that the St. Louis County Council voted on Jan. 21 to hire an outside attorney to help draft an intergovernmental agreement covering how the training center will be built and operated. The commission behind the project has support from top elected officials across the participating counties, according to STLtoday.com's reporting.
St. Louis Police Foundation member Bob Brinkmann is credited with developing the idea for the regional facility and securing state support for it, per the same STLtoday.com account. With the land now purchased and a construction timeline set for spring 2027, the years-long push to build a shared training hub for the region's police departments has moved from concept to concrete plans.
