Weitz Celebrates Grand Opening of New Public Safety Building with the City of Coral Gables

Coral Gables, FL – Ceremonial ribbons were cut last Friday afternoon as the City of Coral Gables’ Police and Fire Departments were welcomed to their new headquarter facility. Weitz, project architect AECOM, City officials, emergency responders, staff and residents were all in attendance to celebrate the Grand Opening of the new City of Coral Gables Public Safety Building.

Designed to withstand Category 5 Hurricane force winds, the new five-story, 116,000 square foot facility also houses the City’s Emergency Operations Center with a 911 call center and first responders’ dispatch center, Human Resources Department, Labor Relations Department, and the City’s Information Technology Department. A 74,000 square foot, 160-stall parking garage was also part of the project’s scope.

Because this project was located on the tightly constrained corner of Salzedo Street and Minorca Avenue on the outskirts of downtown Coral Gables, inner city traffic, delivery schedules, pedestrians in the public right of way and proximity to neighboring businesses posed a challenge to the Weitz team.

The Weitz team met the challenge head on and created a detailed logistics plan that included creating detours for pedestrians to route them around the work area and scheduling delivery times to minimize disruptions to neighboring residents and businesses. In addition to the logistics plan, the Weitz team also created a monthly newsletter, which was posted to the City’s website to keep everyone up-to-date on the project’s progress.

“We were honored to construct this landmark facility for the City of Coral Gables,” said Dennis Gallagher, Executive Vice President for The Weitz Company’s Florida office. “Our project team’s dedication to safely constructing the Public Safety Building attributed to the success of the project.”