Pittsburgh to extend lease on North Side police HQ with option to buy

Pittsburgh City Council voted Thursday to renew the city’s lease on its North Side police headquarters, a week after opposing the measure in a preliminary vote.

The city has been leasing a Western Avenue building for its police headquarters for 20 years. The existing lease was set to expire at the end of January.

Council approved a six-year lease extension, which includes an option for the city to buy the 80,000-square-foot building at any point during the lease agreement.

Officials have not provided an estimate of how much it would cost to buy the building. Some council members had expressed reservations about extending the lease with an option to buy for that reason.

The city now pays about $1.5 million a year to lease the building. That cost will go down to about $1.3 million annually under the new deal.

Council members have repeatedly voiced concerns about spending so much money on a lease rather than owning a police headquarters facility. Jake Pawlak, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told council that the lease extension was “more financially advantageous to the city” than other lease and purchase options officials explored.

Council members last week unanimously voted against the proposed lease extension with an option to buy in a preliminary vote. This week, they reversed course.

“I don’t think we really have much of another choice,” said Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview.

Coghill said he’d like to look into buying the Western Avenue building as soon as next year.

Councilman Bruce Kraus, D-South Side, said he initially had intended to vote against the lease extension, but felt he needed to support it “based on our duty to provide for the safety of the public at large.”

Pittsburgh police moved into their existing headquarters in 2003. The site of their previous headquarters is now a parklet near the Boulevard of the Allies ramp and a PNC corporate building in Downtown.

Officials have said the city was not in a financial position in 2003 to buy a building to serve as the police headquarters.

“We all know, we all agree, this was not our finest hour in terms of spending public dollars,” Kraus said.

Related:

• Pittsburgh City Council opposes re-upping lease for North Side police headquarters

• Pittsburgh considers extending lease on police HQ for 6 years, with option to buy

• Pittsburgh police set to realign next year amid union concerns about staffing