Sarasota County public safety building scheduled to start in October

Sarasota County government has started its final regulatory steps to build a new public safety facility on a 6.4-acre parcel at 6062 Porter Way, Sarasota. The 40,502-square-foot is planned as the permanent home for the county's emergency 911 call center and emergency operations.

Both departments are currently based out of the Sarasota County Administration Center on Ringling Boulevard, but that building is only built to withstand up to a Category 2 hurricane.

The new public safety building will be hardened for up to a Category 5 storm. As currently conceived, the building would house 35 employees every day, but could handle more than 300 in a countywide emergency.

Construction is scheduled to start in October for an opening in December 2014.

Winter Park-based Architects Design Group Inc. and Sarasota-based FleischmanGarcia Architecture designed the new building. Midway-based Ajax Building Corp. will partner with Tandem Construction in Sarasota for the actual construction.

The entire budget for the project is a little more than $18 million.