Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a step towards construction of the new Public Safety Training Academy in West Garfield Park. This week the Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT) in coordination with the City of Chicago will issue a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the design, construction and financing of the new 30-acre training campus on the West Side. The consolidated centralized training academy will improve interagency collaboration in emergency response, and emphasize hands-on tactical training in real-world situations.

The new campus will include indoor and outdoor training spaces that both extend the current training capabilities of the Police and Fire Departments as well as offer more joint-training opportunities. The state of the art training campus will include two buildings, employee parking and an outdoor training area with key functions like indoor shooting range, diving pool, conventional classrooms, conference rooms, administrative offices, auditorium, practice range and fitness facilities. The RFQ for Design-Build-Finance entities will be issued this week; responses are due at 4 P.M. CST on Nov. 20, 2017. A copy of the RFQ will be available for download at www.ChicagoInfrastructure.org. The new facility will be funded in part by proceeds from the sale of the site on N. Throop Street. The estimated cost for the proposed Public Safety Training Academy, including land acquisition, is $95 million. A portion of the Project funding will be from the sale of city-owned land at 1685 N. Throop St. Following a competitive bidding process, the City has reached a tentative agreement to sell the 18-acre site to local developer Sterling Bay for $104.7 million, or $133.53 per square foot. Closing is expected to occur later this year. At least $20 million of the sale of 1685 N. Throop St. will go towards the Public Safety Training Academy, which will support design and construction of the new academy.