Fort Lauderdale police officially opened a new $165 million headquarters Wednesday, capping a construction saga that stretched years beyond schedule and survived a cracked support beam, a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme and a demolition of the 68-year-old building it replaces. City officials and law enforcement leaders held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1300 W. Broward Blvd. to mark the opening of the 191,000-square-foot facility, which includes a 50-yard gun range, an armory and a Faraday room designed to block cell and wifi signals during digital investigations.
The project's price tag ballooned well beyond what voters were originally told to expect. Fort Lauderdale voters approved a $100 million bond in 2019 to build a new police station, and city officials at the time hoped the facility would be finished by 2021, according to the Miami Herald. By the time construction actually began in 2023, the project had already climbed to $140 million, and inflation, labor costs and rising construction expenses pushed the final bill to $165 million.
Mayor Dean Trantalis, who participated in Wednesday's ribbon-cutting, acknowledged the bumpy road to completion. Projects of this magnitude require difficult decisions and constant coordination, he said, per the Herald's report. Fort Lauderdale Police Chief William Schultz, who also took part in the ceremony, said the new headquarters symbolizes community belief in the department and its commitment to its mission — and he hung a sign from the original 1958 police building inside the new one as a nod to that history.
A Cracked Beam and a Fixable Flaw
The headquarters' path to opening wasn't smooth. A support beam at the new building developed hairline cracks along its entire length in 2024, later traced to a design miscalculation in which support structures could not carry the weight of the third-floor cantilevered roof — a problem that surfaced when glass installation workers noticed the splitting concrete along the third-floor beam, according to Local 10 News. Additional support columns were installed to fix the issue, and the cracks were ultimately repaired.
The structural questions didn't end there. An independent engineering evaluation by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. in May 2025 identified eight separate safety and structural concerns with the building, leading design firm AECOM to agree to pay for all repairs and monitor the facility for five years, according to WLRN. City Commissioner Steven Glassman said the finished building reflects how law enforcement has evolved, while city development services director Anthony Fajardo called it a safe building that supports the city's needs for decades to come, per the Herald.
A $1.2 Million Fraud Scheme Along the Way
Construction of the headquarters also became the target of a significant cybercrime. In September 2023, the city fell victim to a $1.2 million construction fraud scheme when a finance employee paid a fraudulent invoice from scammers impersonating contractor Moss Construction, though detectives ultimately recovered all of the stolen funds by January 2024. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department's Economic Crimes Unit partnered with federal agencies including the FBI and Secret Service to trace and recover the money, the department said in a statement announcing the recovery.
The project's guaranteed maximum price was $118,998,391, according to city commission records. That figure would later rise substantially as inflation and material costs drove the total project cost toward its final $165 million mark.
Built for Modern Policing — and a Category 5 Storm
Inside, the three-story building is designed to accommodate more than 700 total employees, supporting a sworn force of more than 500 officers alongside civilian staff, and it's built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. The headquarters houses a state-of-the-art crime scene investigations lab with a digital forensics unit, drying rooms for evidence and a garage for vehicles pulled from crime scenes. Officers can now train onsite at the 50-yard gun range, which includes moving shooting targets and space for cars used in training scenarios — a shift from the old building, where training had previously been outsourced.
The campus also includes an open-air courtyard, murals donated for display, and a dedicated 5,270-square-foot community center intended for joint neighborhood crime prevention initiatives and civic meetings, according to Florida YIMBY. The community center provides space for those initiatives and meetings.
From Temporary Digs to a Finished Campus
While construction dragged on, Fort Lauderdale police operations were temporarily relocated to a leased facility at 1515 W. Cypress Creek Road, which operated daily from November 2023 until the new headquarters was ready, according to CBS Miami. The original 1958 police headquarters, which suffered from roof deck bending and concrete cracking after nearly seven decades of service, underwent asbestos abatement before it was demolished earlier this year, as Hoodline previously reported. Clearing that site was the final phase of the campus master plan, primarily to build expanded parking for the new complex.
The financing behind the project also drew a vote of confidence from Wall Street. Standard & Poor's Global Ratings assigned a AAA rating with a stable outlook to Fort Lauderdale's approximately $96 million Series 2025 Special Obligation Bonds last September, as Hoodline reported at the time. The city's reserves exceeded a formal fund-balance policy.
