Charlotte County’s experience with devastating hurricanes over the last 20 years has county officials planning for the future. Hurricane–hardened structures are being built to house Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office administration offices, a 911 call center and the Supervisor of Elections.
Funding became available for the new facilities from the voter-approved 1% local option sales tax from 2020. On June 4, public officials, including Sheriff Bill Prummell and Supervisor of Elections Leah Valenti, turned out for a groundbreaking ceremony at 3100 Loveland Blvd. in Port Charlotte.
The projects are being built on county-owned land by Wharton-Smith Inc. with Justin Dunn as the facilities’ project manager.
The CCSO facility on Utilities Road near the airport was nearly torn apart in 2004 by Category 4 Hurricane Charley.
The design cost for the new facility was $1,689,200 and was completed in September 2023 by Schenkel Shultz Architecture. Project manager of the design team was Aaron Jacobson.
The CCSO construction cost for the project that began April 4 is $37,365,655. John Carlson is the project manager of construction.
Total cost of the project came in nearly $6 million under budget at $39,054,855.
The building will house CCSO administration staff, including senior command and support staff units, a command vehicle garage and public safety answering point backup, as well as a RealTime Information Center.
Sufficient land was reserved next to the District 3 office and impound/evidence/forensics facility, 3110 Loveland Blvd., to create a law enforcement services campus.
The Supervisor of Elections 21,229–square–foot warehouse will be home to a staging and receiving area, access to shared restrooms and staff lounges, elevated receiving dock with levelers and a discharge ramp, additional smaller truck and loading vehicle ground delivery area, staff parking and a vehicular/pedestrian access path to surrounding site improvements.
The hardened climate-controlled facility will provide both storage and office space divided among four departments, including the SOE, the county’s Facilities Department, sheriff’s office and Emergency Management.
It also will provide space to store sensitive polling equipment and related supplies.
The design cost for the SOE structure was $395,340, and it was completed last September. BSSW Architects served as the consultant, and the project manager was Miguel Goizueta.
The construction cost came in at $7,056,568.
The total project cost was $7,451,908. It too came under the projected budget of $8.2 million.
Both facilities are expected to be completed by Feb. 1, 2026.
