St. Catharines Downtown Association

Regional council confirmed a plan Thursday to begin negotiations for a new police headquarters site, despite a last-ditch plea from St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan to build a cheaper building in his city.

Regional staff will now begin secret land negotiations for a new police headquarters site sources have told The Standard would be in Niagara Falls. Sources say one of the leading contenders is the old Cyanamid brownfield site north of the downtown near Stanley Avenue.

McMullan e-mailed a new consultant's report and a last-ditch plea to all regional councillors late this week, arguing a downtown Garden City headquarters is viable for Niagara Regional Police and cheaper for taxpayers.

The report from HOK Architects and Leach Mounce Architects examined the size, location and cost of police buildings in larger cities like Vancouver, Los Angeles and Boston and concluded Niagara could build a comparable headquarters on a smaller site, for $10 million less than the current proposal.

"Clearly, if large police forces such as these can locate a headquarters facility in an urban centre on sites the same size or smaller than 68 Church St., it is possible for Niagara Regional Police to do the same," he wrote in an appeal to his council colleagues.

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