Branson PD set to open new $14M HQ

Three years after the city of Branson purchased a former theater, its transformation into a new headquarters for the Police Department is nearly complete.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for Dec. 3 at 2255 Gretna Road – site of the former White House Theatre – and will be followed by public tours of the 42,360-square-foot space the department is occupying. Branson Police Chief Eric Schmitt said general contractor Cornerstone Building Services LLC was completing punch list items in the week leading up to the event.

“For the ribbon cutting, it’ll be fairly bare bones,” he said of the facility which the department will begin utilizing Dec. 4. “We wanted to do the ribbon cutting before we actually moved operations over there because we don’t want to have sensitive items out because we’re going to be doing full tours of the building.”

Schmitt said the project is wrapping on time and under budget, originally estimated at around $16 million, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. While final figures are yet to be calculated, Schmitt said the project should conclude at around $14.1 million. The city’s Board of Aldermen last year approved a $10 million bond which, combined with over $6 million saved in tax revenue, allowed the city to fully fund the new headquarters.

The department is set to move from its current headquarters at City Hall, 110 W. Maddux St., where officials say staff has been challenged for years working in approximately 9,000 square feet. It employs 65 officers and around 30 civilian employees in positions such as animal control, dispatchers and records clerks, he said.

The city purchased the White House Theatre for $2.5 million in 2022, according to past reporting. It auctioned off contents of the shuttered 65,000-square-foot theatre in 2023, with proceeds going toward renovation of the property.

Schmitt said the transformed building includes a temporary holding facility and training room that also can be used for community needs, as well as areas for evidence storage, administrative offices for both police and Fire Department personnel, a crime lab, locker rooms and a workout area. It also includes space for K-9 officers and a larger booking space for suspects. The remaining roughly 23,000 square feet of the building not in use will comprise future undetermined usage. The project was designed by Kansas City-based Hoefer Welker LLC, according to past reporting.

The building’s new look exceeds Schmitt’s expectations.

“I didn’t think it would be possible, but they actually changed what was the White House Theatre into something that really does look like a municipal police department and embraces the landscape,” he said.

Early conversations with the architect helped shape the building’s redesign, Schmitt said.

“We knew we were going to be on a strict budget, so we wanted to spend our money more on functionality than the outside aesthetics and so forth,” he said. “But I think people are going to be really impressed. The architects and the builder both worked very well with us to achieve not only our expectations and our needs, but they also helped us accomplish a lot of our wants.”

County activity
North of Branson in Christian County, police departments in Nixa and Ozark are both amid building projects of their own. Nixa’s new headquarters is already under construction, while the Ozark Board of Aldermen in October gave the green light for city leaders to begin developing plans for OPD’s new home.

The city of Nixa in 2024 purchased roughly 5 acres, just east of Victory Baptist Church, at Leann Drive and Highway 14 for $155,000 from Xtreme Property Holdings LLC, according to past reporting. The company is owned by Hunter and Summer Lampe, who also co-own Nixa-based residential and commercial contractor Xtreme Exteriors Roofing & Siding LLC.

City officials say groundbreaking was held Sept. 30 for the roughly 22,000-square-foot Nixa facility, which will more than double the footprint of its 10,500-square-foot longtime headquarters at 715 W. Center Circle. Nixa Police Chief Joe Campbell said the concrete foundation has been poured and infrastructure work is in progress. General contractor is KCI Construction Co., he said, adding Insight Design Architects LLC and Brentwood-based Chiodini Architects are project designers. Officials are estimating completion by December 2026.

“Nothing vertical yet, but it is changing a lot when you look at it,” he said, noting the project cost is estimated at $15.2 million. “They’re really moving quickly, and we’ve been kind of blessed with really good weather. It’s been fairly dry, so they’ve been able to do a lot.”

Nixa officials say the new Police Department headquarters will be funded through a three-quarter-cent sales tax passed in April 2023. The tax brought in nearly $2.8 million last year, according to the department’s 2024 annual report. Campbell said the tax revenue is around $2.6 million this year with more than a month to go.

“It’s trending to be kind of right on pace for what we expected,” he said, adding the department employs 49 commissioned police officers and a total staff of 55.

A larger facility for components such as locker rooms, training areas, evidence storage and a fitness space are in the plans, Campbell said.

“A larger evidence room is always nice, but a lot of the staff things like the fitness equipment, the training room, the community room, proper locker rooms, those are all amenities that are going to really be beneficial for us,” he said.

In Ozark, Justin Arnold said the Police Department has operated at 201 E. Brick St. since 2005, the year he was hired as a police officer. He was promoted to police chief in 2019.

“It was supposed to be a temporary move just to accommodate our issues that we were having with overcrowding and stuff at our old facility,” he said, noting the space was inadequate for the department’s needs even 20 years ago. “We have numerous areas that multiple staff are being housed or work out of one office. We really have no storage space or anything like that. Our locker rooms are inadequate for our staff.”

The department works in 6,500 square feet, but Arnold said nearly one-quarter of that is used for evidence storage.

“So, we have 46 employees who are operating out of 5,000 square feet,” he said, noting staff has grown by around 10 employees since he became police chief. “We have a lot of overcrowding in our workspaces. We have a lack of dedicated workspaces for supervisors, for detectives who are investigating specialty-type cases, things like that.”

There’s also the issue with inadequate parking, as Arnold said only around 30 spaces for vehicles are available. That forces employees and the public to frequently park off-site.

Although Arnold said a new Police Department facility has been discussed for roughly two decades, there was no real actionable direction given until the city’s 2024 strategic plan. It noted a 12-month goal to develop a plan to provide an adequate facility to meet community and staff member needs.

“We’re in that planning and design phase where we’re looking at what the needs are,” he said, estimating the proposed building will be 25,000-30,000 square feet with an approximate cost of $18 million. “Of course, it’s very tentative. We haven’t really engaged with professionals in that field yet because we’re waiting on this 2026 budget when money is finally attributed to doing that.”

City officials say the 2026 budget is expected to be voted on by the Board of Aldermen at its Dec. 1 meeting.

A portion of revenue from Ozark’s quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax will be earmarked for the project, Arnold said.

“One of the first steps is utilizing some of that quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax for the planning and programming and design expenses related to this project,” he said. “In 2026, we’ve budgeted $620,000 to start that process.”

The city is looking at several potential sites for the future headquarters, but Arnold said no decisions on a location are expected to be made until early next year.

“As far as designing and the programming and stuff like that for the facility, we anticipate starting that in early 2026,” he said, adding three years is a “very safe timeframe” for the entire project. 

Dispatchers’ destination
While Ozark is early in its new police headquarters search, Branson’s Schmitt said his department – save for its 17 dispatchers – will soon be moving to Gretna Road. But he said those employees are expected to make a move of their own next spring, thanks to savings from the Police Department project budget.

The dispatch center will relocate to the Pacific Street water tower building at 616 W. Pacific St. It will occupy 1,336 square feet in remodeled space the city’s utilities department didn’t need, Schmitt said.

“We basically were able to take over the second floor for our dispatch,” he said. “That structure is actually rated to withstand F-5 tornadoes.”