Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover City Council on Monday, Dec. 5, agreed to pay $1.9 million to buy the Lorna Professional Building at 3021 Lorna Road in Hoover, Alabama. The plan is to move the Fire Department administrative offices there and potentially other offices.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night voted unanimously in favor of the city spending $1.9 million to buy an office building on Lorna Road for a relocation of Fire Department administrative offices.
The property in question is the Lorna Professional Building at 3021 Lorna Road, currently owned by Ratliff Partners.
Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice said the three-story building, built in 1990, has about 24,000 square feet and is about 60% vacant.
The city needs to find a new location for the Fire Department’s administrative offices because the current offices at the Hoover Public Safety Center are needed for expansion of the National Computer Forensics Institute, run by the U.S. Secret Service, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said.
The city expects the National Computer Forensics Institute to receive more funding for expansion and needs to find a place for the Fire Department offices to move, he said.
The National Computer Forensics Institute has a great economic impact on the city, with more than 20,000 people from all 50 states and five U.S. territories being trained there since 2008, Brocato said. In fiscal 2022, the institute accounted for more than $2.5 million in hotel stays, nearly $2 million in meals and incidental spending and nearly $500,000 on transportation spending, and those numbers are expected to increase in 2023, according to the city.
The city just completed a conversion of about 5,500 square feet of space formerly occupied by the city’s Revenue Department into new space for the institute, including a seventh classroom, eight administrative offices, a lobby and network server room, said Brent Harlan, the special agent in charge for the U.S. Secret Service, which runs the institute.
This expanded the institute’s total space in the Hoover Public Safety Center to about 40,000 square feet, Harlan said.
In fiscal 2022, which ended Sept. 30, the institute trained almost 4,300 people, according to records provided by the Secret Service.
The new 2,200-square-foot classroom will allow the institute to train an additional 1,000 to 1,500 law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges from across the country in digital evidence, forensics and cybercrime investigations over the course of a year, Harlan said.
Hoover City Administrator Allan Rice said plans already are being made to hopefully add three more classrooms, an auditorium and other ancillary space at the institute. The ultimate goal is to have 10 classrooms training 8,000 people a year in 100,000 square feet, Harlan said.
Rice said there currently is a line item in the federal budget to make that expansion happen, but even if funding for the full expansion doesn’t get final approval this year, the institute will need room to more gradually grow.
Rice said the Lorna Professional Building would make a good site for city offices. Inspections have shown the building’s roof and mechanical systems to be in fantastic shape. “The building has been incredibly well-maintained,” he said.
Interior renovation will be necessary to accommodate city offices, but that should mostly be sheetrock and stud work, Rice said.
Councilman Casey Middlebrooks asked if anyone had considered renting space somewhere rather than buying a building, given the current glut in the office market. Rice said that option had been evaluated, but the purchase price per square foot for this building is still a better deal.
Brocato said he wants to move forward with the purchase immediately. However, Rice said it will take some time for current tenant leases to expire. The final two don’t expire until June 2025, he said.
The sign in front of the building indicates tenants as Always There In-Home Care, The Bruette Agency Nationwide insurance office, Hospice Partners of America, Ford’s Foot Performance, Immigration Law Center and Stratus Orthopedics.
Jehad Al-Dakka, the city’s chief operations officer, said city officials likely will hire an architect to come up with design plans for the interior of the building.
Brocato said that, in addition to Fire Department administrative offices, there may be an opportunity to put other offices there, such as some police administrative offices, the city’s economic development team and some other offices on the second floor of the Hoover Public Safety Center, Brocato said. Those determinations will be made later, he said.
The Lorna Professional Building was not the only big purchase for the Fire Department on the City Council’s agenda Monday night.
The council also voted unanimously to spend nearly $2.7 million for a ladder truck and a fire engine, both budgeted items for this year.
However, the Fire Department likely will not receive the vehicles for quite some time. Sutphen Corp. has 24 to 26 months to deliver the ladder truck and 30 months to deliver the fire engine pumper truck, according to documents in the council’s agenda packet.
The council also on Monday approved a budget amendment to cover a $1.3 million purchase of land along U.S. 31 for a new location for Hoover Fire Station No. 1 in the Green Valley community. The council in October authorized the mayor to enter a contract to buy the land along U.S. 31 for $1.3 million, and this vote amended the budget to cover that purchase.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night also:
- Authorized the mayor to extend an agreement to keep the East Coast Pro Baseball Showcase at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex for another five years.
- Approved an agreement between Hoover and Shelby County that will allow the two entities’ fleet departments to use one another’s space and equipment in the event of a catastrophic event that leaves either’s normal facility inoperable.
- Declared property at 3416 Cedar Crest Circle as a public nuisance due to high weeds and/or grass.
- Recognized winners of the Veterans Week poster contest held by the city’s Veterans Committee and Hoover Public Library.
- Declared Dec. 17, 2022, as Wreaths Across America Day in Hoover to remember the fallen members of the country’s armed forces, honor them and teach the next generation about the value of freedom.
