Phoenix police unveil shiny new $136 million downtown headquarters

The Phoenix Police Department cut the ribbon to its new home on Friday.

While the department has been slowly transitioning from its old headquarters of over 50 years into the new one just down the road, the ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the official grand opening at 100 West Washington Street. And starting Monday, the public will be able to go in person to the new request public records office now housed there. 

“I look forward to the innovative and community-led policing that will come from this building,” said Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington during the ceremony Friday morning.

The 500,000-square-foot office building was the former Wells Fargo Tower and the temporary home of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The Phoenix City Council approved the purchase of the building in 2021 for $46.5 million. According to an information sheet from the department, the renovations, which began in 2023, cost $190 million. The department claims that building a new headquarters would have cost roughly $350-500 million.

In addition to the new public records office, which replaces an old standalone building near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the new headquarters features a Real Time Intelligence Crime Center, a gym, privacy rooms for nursing mothers and a 24-hour cafe. 

The new headquarters were a long time coming, said Councilmember Laura Pastor. She’s worked with six different police chiefs during her time in government, she said, and “every one of them has told me we need a new building.”

Mayor Kate Gallego said the spacious, updated facilities will allow the city to better serve its residents, adding that they represent an investment in the city’s workforce.

“Just ask our dispatchers what they think of taking calls in this facility. They have a much better view of the city,” Gallego said. In the old building, 911 dispatch was in the basement. Now, dispatch has the top floor.

Inside the sunny atrium past the building’s entrance is a memorial honoring the 46 officers who have died in the line of duty over the department’s history. It was funded in part by the Phoenix Police Foundation, which also donated to the building of the gym.

The department hopes to be fully moved into the new digs by the end of the year — though, like with all renovation projects, there will inevitably be delays. 

The future of their old home is also up in the air. The department doesn’t know what will happen to it once it is vacant. Opened in 1975, the building originally housed the city’s police and fire departments, the city prosecutor’s office and real estate and sanitation departments. 

A lot of history and milestones happened in that building, Police Chief Matt Giordano said. 

“And now that’s going to be in the past,” he said. 

Here are more photos from the ceremony.