Hoover council agrees to pay $225,000 for 1.22 acres on Municipal Drive

The Hoover City Council today authorized the mayor to pay $225,000 for 1.22 acres on Municipal Drive for the construction of a police training facility.

The city is buying the land from Jack Nix, who owns most of the land between Hoover Fire Station No. 4 and the Extra Space Storage facility at the corner of Municipal Drive and Lorna Road. The city already owns a half-acre parcel right next to Fire Station No. 4 and adjacent to Nix’s land, City Administrator Allan Rice said.

Hoover Council President Gene Smith said this was a good deal because it’s a good location for a training facility near both the police administration office and the Police Department’s operations center on Lorna Road.

The training facility is being built primarily for the Police Department but also will be available for use by other departments, Rice said. It likely will be 9,000 to 12,000 square feet and include both training space and storage space for specialty police vehicles, he said.

The training portion of the building likely will include one room large enough to accommodate up to 100 people, as well as some mid-size and smaller conference rooms and a room with space for more physical training, such as take downs, pepper spray, tasers and baton use, Rice said. The Police Department had the latter type of room at the Hoover Public Safety Center but lost it in one of the building’s renovation projects, he said.

The City Council already has budgeted $1.5 million for the training facility and expects to get a $250,000 donation from a private donor, for a total price of $1.75 million, but that number is not final, Rice said.

The cost of the land purchase is included in the $1.5 million the city expects to spend, Rice said. The goal is to begin the construction project soon and possibly complete it in 2018, he said.

The property the council authorized the mayor to purchase backs up to The Place at Galleria apartment complex.