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The city of Noblesville is moving forward with plans to build a new police headquarters, expected to cost up to $50 million.
The Noblesville City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved two resolutions to facilitate financing for the project, which was first announced by Mayor Chris Jensen during his State of the City address in 2024.
The new facility is planned for the city’s south side at 1700 Division St., where Nashville-based Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC operated Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. until the factory closed 15 years ago.
The Noblesville Police Department currently shares a 32-year-old building with the city’s fire department administration and Fire Station 71. The building was constructed when the city had a population of about 20,000. Now, Noblesville has more than 75,000 residents and more than 100 police department employees.
Noblesville Deputy Mayor Matt Light said that city officials worked through 2025 and into early 2026 discussing the department’s needs with Noblesville Assistant Police Chief Eric Cunningham to settle on design plans.
Plans show that the new 58,917 square feet, two-story facility — which Light said is 230% larger than the current police department space —will include administrative offices, meeting spaces, public services areas, the criminal records department, evidence storage and a crime-tracking center.
City documents show there will also be public and secured parking for police vehicles, and necessary infrastructure such as road, streets and utilities will be improved in connection to the facility and surrounding area.
The new building will have room to expand in the future, but Light said that expansion won’t be needed for at least 15 years.
Future plans also call for an outbuilding (to be built in five to seven years) that will house a vehicle processing bay, a K-9 kennel, a virtual training simulator and a mat training room. The cost of the outbuilding will involve additional costs.
The two resolutions that the city council passed on Tuesday are first steps for financing the headquarters project. One resolution allows city officials to collect taxpayer signatures on a petition and obtain appraisals for the property and the other is a reimbursement resolution from bond proceeds.
The development contract with GM Development Cos. and Garmong Construction calls for a maximum cost for the headquarters of $50.15 million.
City officials expect to close on bonds for the project at the end of August and break ground in September or October. Construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months, which would mean the facility would be complete around the third quarter of 2028, Light said.
Cunningham, the assistant police chief, believes the new police headquarters will fit the department’s future needs.
“I’m very confident that this will hit our 20-year head count,” Cunningham said. “You don’t have a crystal ball. We don’t know how quickly the city is going to grow, but there’s some flexibility built into the design.”
Cunningham said the goal of the facility is to try to get everything under one roof. While there will still be some storage across different locations, the future outbuilding will bring everything to one central location.
Noblesville’s City Court, overseen by Judge S. Matthew Cook will continue to operate from the current police and fire station headquarters, Cunningham said.
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