FDLE develops new, 64,000-square-foot Fort Myers operations center

Seagate Development says it has been chosen to develop a new 64,000-square-foot Florida Department of Law Enforcement regional operations center in Fort Myers.

The company, in a statement, says the project is currently in the design stage and that the estimated completion date is October 2026.

A spokesperson declined to give a dollar amount for a project writing in an email that, “At this time, it is not public information to release how much the project is for.”

FDLE, however, said in a February press release that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget included $5 million for the new Fort Myers Regional Operations Center.

The department did not respond to a question about whether the amount would cover the entire project or just a portion of it.

The new facility will replace the current building on Terminal Drive, which the department says was damaged by multiple storms.

Seagate, in its statement, says the operations center will be built on 8.28 acres and will include office space, laboratory areas, a training center and warehouse facility.

It will be built along the Alico corridor, the firm's spokesperson says.

According to the FDLE’s website, the operations center was founded in 1996 in response to growth in Southwest Florida. Its work covers10 counties, from Manatee, Desoto, Highlands and Okeechobee counties in the north to Collier County in the south.

“During its history, FMROC investigators and forensic scientists have helped solve thousands of crimes,” FDLE says on the center’s online profile.

“In the 1980s, agents, working in what would later become FMROC, investigated Operation Peacemaker, a major drug-smuggling case resulting in more than 175 indictments and more than one million pounds of marijuana seized.”

And in 2021, FMROC agents arrested six people for stealing over $740,000 from hundreds of churches throughout the United States as part of Operation Thou Shalt Not Steal.

Fort Myers-based Seagate is working on the project alongside PDS Architecture and Quattrone and Associates, an engineering firm.