Bradenton breaks ground on $35M police headquarters

By Elizabeth King
| 4:03 p.m. May 20, 2025
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

City officials joined Bradenton police and NDC Construction personnel for the May 20 police department groundbreaking.

Manatee-Sarasota

The city of Bradenton has broken ground on the new headquarters for the Bradenton Police Department. At $35 million, the project is “probably the highest cost vertical construction project the city has ever done,” City Administrator Rob Perry said at the May 20 groundbreaking.

At 703 3rd St. W., the new headquarters is “centrally located to better serve our community,” Perry said. It will contain training facilities, community rooms, the latest in crime-fighting technology, modernized spaces for forensics and evidence as well as secure parking. The headquarters itself will be 50,399 square feet, and Perry said the accompanying already-under-construction parking structure will span 61,000 square feet.

Currently, the police headquarters at 100 10th St. W. has about 30,000 square feet, so Perry said the new facility will mark a “significant increase” in size.

“The groundbreaking this morning represents more than the start of construction,” Perry said. “It really symbolizes the entire city's commitment to public safety, to law and order, to innovation and technology and to further investment in this outstanding police department.”

The Bradenton Police Department headquarters will span more than 50,000 square feet.

The Bradenton Police Department employs 123 sworn officers, 30 full-time civilians and 10 part-time civilians. It has operated out of the current headquarters for more than 25 years, according to Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan.

“Our city has grown … and so has the scope and complexity of policing,” Bevan said at the groundbreaking. “We’ve outgrown our current digs.”

The new facility will provide officers with the “tools and the space they need to meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s demands,” Bevan said.

Areas will be set aside for specialized units, strategic planning, officer wellness, training and community, she said, “because policing isn't just about enforcement — it's about relationships and it's about presence.”

Finally, she added, the locker rooms will “actually have enough lockers for all the women and hopefully, just hopefully, the men's locker room will have toilets that self-flush.”

NDC Construction is building the new Bradenton Police Department headquarters.

Construction is expected to take about 16 months, NDC Construction owner and chairman Ron Allen told the Business Observer.

'It's a renaissance': Bradenton projects come to life

Public safety is the largest component of Bradenton’s capital development plans, according to City Administrator Rob Perry, who said many of the city's projects are now starting to come to fruition,

Recently, he noted, the city has ushered in two new fire stations and a new emergency operations center. He thanked the “visionary mayor,” Gene Brown, and city council for helping to bring these developments, along with a $150 million infrastructure project, to life.

The city also demolished its public works building at 1411 9th St. W. in February to make way for City Park, a public space connecting downtown Bradenton to Village of the Arts and the 9th Street West entertainment district.

Bradenton plans to consolidate its public works and solid waste operations off US 301 and 9th Street East, where the City Council this spring authorized the $4.85 million purchase of more than 32 acres from Tropicana.

Meanwhile, the city is conducting surveys and inspections around its City Hall property to present to Vias at Bradenton LLC, which agreed in July 2024 to buy the property for $14.1 million, if off-site mitigation costs are deemed acceptable to the West Palm Beach-based company. The master development and purchase agreement shows the deal can close no earlier than January 2026, and an April 2026 closing is forecast.

“We have a lot going on in the city — a lot more than we ever have — and it's a renaissance that's becoming a reality,” Perry said at the groundbreaking for the new police headquarters. “It really sets the course for a bright future.”

author

Elizabeth King

Elizabeth is a business news reporter with the Business Observer, covering primarily Sarasota-Bradenton, in addition to other parts of the region. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, she previously covered hyperlocal news in Maryland for Patch for 12 years. Now she lives in Sarasota County.