Agawam mayor proposes vacant office building as new police station

March 16, 2022 | Michael Ballway
mballway@thereminder.com

Agawam officials are looking at the vacant building at 1070 Suffield St. — most recently Hub New England Insurance Services — as a potential new police station for the town.
Reminder Publishing photo by Michael Ballway

AGAWAM – Police may not get the brand-new building they are asking for, but the town will study remodeling a commercial property to at least get them out of their century-old converted schoolhouse.

City councilors voted 11-0 on March 7 to spend $28,800 on a consultant to examine whether the vacant Hub New England Insurance Services building, at 1070 Suffield St., Agawam, could be renovated into a police station.

Agawam’s current police station, at 681 Springfield St., Feeding Hills, was first built in 1907 and operated as the Faolin Peirce School for its first 80 years. It lacks such basic public safety amenities as evidence lockers, an exercise room, or sufficient electrical outlets to charge radios and other equipment.

“It’s a deplorable building they’re working in right now,” commented City Councilor Paul Cavallo. “A shame to the town of Agawam that that is where our police station is.”

Because of worldwide economic factors such as inflation and supply and labor shortages, the cost of construction has shot up recently, Mayor William Sapelli said. He said building a new police station for Agawam would probably cost $40 million at today’s rates.

“I didn’t think that was the right way to go, with taxpayer money, when we have other needs, as well,” Sapelli said. “When you take the cost we can get that property for, and renovate that into a police station we can be proud of that fits the needs of the men and women of our Police Department, I think the cost is very, very reasonable, and maybe one-fifth of the cost of building brand-new.”

The Hub building is listed for sale for $2.55 million. Town Solicitor Stephen Buoniconti said the town was able to negotiate the seller down to $2.15 million if the town is able to close on the sale by June 1.

Although the Hub building would require substantial and expensive renovations for municipal use, Sapelli said having a roof, four walls and basic heating, cooling and power infrastructure in place puts a big dent into the price.

“The most expensive parts [of new construction] are the utilities, the mechanicals, the boilers, the ventilators, the air conditioning units, the electrical panels, the roofing – those things are all there right now, and we think they’re in pretty good shape,” Sapelli said. “I think we could get into this and out of it for under $10 million, or less.”

Buoniconti added that the seller has agreed to leave the existing office furniture with the building. He said other public safety buildings recently built in Massachusetts have spent $1 million on furniture alone, and “a lot of that furniture is in very good shape.”

The Hub building also already has a workout room – one of the facilities that a new police station would need, and one that is lacking from the current station.

Before being owned by East Longmeadow-based Hub, the building was the headquarters of the Insurance Center of New England. It was originally built as the Oaks, a banquet hall. The property includes 5 acres of land.

Councilor Dino Mercadante said he supports finding a new home for the police, but wants town officials to recognize that renovating the Hub building could cost more than they expect. Municipal public safety facilities have to comply with stricter building codes, including resilience to earthquakes and flooding. Councilor Robert Rossi echoed that point.

“This building has to be functional, and it also has to be secure,” he said.

The $28,800 study does not commit the town to any further spending. If the study finds that the building is not suited to police use, or that the renovation would cost too much, the council can choose to take no action.

Police Chief Eric Gillis said after the meeting that he is encouraged to see any steps being taken to find a new home for the Police Department. By voting on March 7 to conduct a study, regardless of how the study turns out, the City Council at least acknowledged the need for a change, Gillis said.

Buoniconti said the town’s Building Maintenance Department considers the police station to be the town building in the worst shape, and that it won’t last another 10 years.

Councilor Anthony Russo said he has toured the current police station, and even if the former school made sense for police in 1987 – and some speakers at the March 7 meeting said it didn’t, even then – it’s clear that advances in technology and the growth of Agawam into a larger community have rendered it obsolete.

“These men and women work very hard for us,” said Russo. “We’ve got to make it a priority and find something, and find something quick for them.”
Council President Christopher Johnson called the 1987 work “largely a cosmetic renovation,” and said after he took office as mayor in 1990, “we had problem after problem after problem” with the building.

Because of the seller’s deadline to close, the City Council agreed to treat the building study as emergency spending. The study will be undertaken by Caolo & Bieniek Associates Inc., with an expected report by May 1, giving the council one month to decide whether to buy the building.

Sapelli said the study will primarily look at whether the property would suit a police station, but will also consider whether it makes sense for a public safety complex – adding to the police either a fire or ambulance substation, or a complete replacement of the current Fire Department headquarters on Main Street.

Sapelli said he has been looking to replace or remodel several municipal buildings since he took office in 2017. The town has studied renovating or replacing its Town Hall, and at one point was considering a municipal complex to house town offices, police and fire. At the same time, Agawam is in the process of planning a replacement or renovation of its more than 60-year-old high school.

The mayor said he has looked at several buildings and land parcels throughout town, but none until now made sense geographically or financially. When the Hub building came on the market, he said, it was clear it would be well suited to some municipal use. Town officials toured the building before crafting the study proposal.

“The Police Department seemed like the best fit for the layout of the building,” he told councilors.

At 1070 Suffield St., the Hub building is not far from Agawam’s Municipal Annex at 1000 Suffield St., which houses the Department of Public Works, some other town agencies, and a district office for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Gillis said there wouldn’t be much advantage to the location, however, as most of his interaction with the DPW and MEMA is by radio or other electronic means.

Gillis also said moving the Police Department from Springfield Street to Suffield Street wouldn’t have an effect on response times. Unlike the Fire Department, which dispatches trucks from its two stations in response to alarms, police officers are out on patrol at all hours, with at least one cruiser in each quadrant of the town.

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