Fort Myers approves a $109 million contract for a police headquarters the city plans to borrow for

Fort Myers City Council voted on July 20 to approve a $109 million construction contract with Wharton-Smith, Inc. for a new police headquarters, a decision Gracie Fusco and Maddie Herron reported for WINK News. The vote was unanimous. WINK reported the total project is expected to reach about $147 million, that construction is set to begin in early September and run roughly 21 months, and that the building is expected to open in the summer of 2028.

The project has been more than a decade in the making, according to WINK, and is meant to consolidate scattered police operations into one facility with a modern 911 communications center, evidence processing, training space and an indoor firing range. Mayor Kevin Anderson attributed the rise in cost over the years to post-pandemic construction prices and supply chain pressure, WINK reported.

The money question underneath the vote is how the city intends to pay. Gulfshore Business reporter Sheldon Zoldan reported in January that the city planned to borrow the full cost of the project through debt financing rather than pay cash, and that City Manager Marty Lawing had cautioned the project could be abandoned entirely if the Florida Legislature altered property tax revenue during its session or a special session. Governor Ron DeSantis and lawmakers have been weighing proposals, including a constitutional amendment, that would reduce or eliminate property taxes, which are a primary funding source for city and county governments across the state.

That is the link that makes a police station a budget story. A building paid for with borrowed money is paid back out of future revenue, and in Florida that revenue is mostly the property tax now under debate in Tallahassee. The council action itself is the public record here; the July 20 vote was taken at a regular city council meeting, and the city keeps the agenda and minutes for that meeting in its council records rather than in a separate filing. The county-level and statewide property tax questions that this financing depends on are the same ones running through this summer's budget hearings in Collier and Lee.