New police station design tops $80 million

A new Waltham police headquarters will cost more than $80 million, according to architects who delivered that estimate to city officials along with an update on the project during a March 16 meeting with the Police Headquarters Selection Committee.

Jeffrey McElravy of Tecton Architects, the firm designing the city’s new police and fire headquarters, said the firm’s consultants estimated the construction would total about $80,637,880. That figure does not include furniture costs.

City officials requested a more complete cost estimate for the building so they could bring a funding request to the City Council.

McElravy also provided an update on the planned station and its timeline, estimating that the bidding, construction and demolition process for the station would take approximately three years.

Waltham’s new police station will be built behind the current one, so that police services wouldn’t be interrupted during construction. 

In May the city authorized the construction of new emergency services headquarters on the site of the current police, fire and Department of Public Works stations at 155 Lexington St. The DPW headquarters will move to the former Fernald property, allowing further expansion for emergency services.

Tecton Architects unveiled initial renderings of the proposed new police station building in October 2025.

At last week’s meeting, McElravy provided updates to those initial plans. He said the second floor of the proposed police station is now smaller than initially designed, in response to Fire Department requests to move a space housing 911 dispatchers to the future fire station. McElravy also removed space designated for future expansion, but he pointed out the current station plans already have room for more police officers than the city currently employs. He added that the city would be able to build out the second floor in the future if it needed more space.

Councilor-at-Large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur asked about the possibility of installing solar panels on the station. Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy pointed out that the current station already has some solar panels, and McElravy said that it would be possible to install more, potentially up to the point of achieving net zero energy requirements, but that would involve building solar canopies above the back parking lot.

The city currently plans to build the new central fire station after the police headquarters is built in a second phase of construction. The new building will go on the footprint of the current 155 Lexington Street station.

Fire Department officers at Monday’s meeting raised concerns about how the department would continue operations during construction, emphasizing this would be a vital problem for the city to solve before commencing the second phase of construction.