Oklahoma County transforming former Krowse Army Reserve building into sheriff offices

Oklahoma County is about to transform a 20th-century fort into a public office building.

The public face of and portions of inside of the Krowse Building, a former U.S. Army Reserve center at 2101 NE 36, will be overhauled as part of a $17.5 million project.

The project will roughly double the amount of usable inside space for Oklahoma County's sheriff to interact with the public, plus provide the county with a new home for its emergency operations center.

The job involves two buildings. The first is a large, steel-frame, two-story concrete building with western-facing windows and a basement.

That building's main entry will be transformed from one that's hard to find and leads to a dark, dim and dingy lobby into one that's easy to spot from outside and will lead visitors to a lobby with natural light and displays of historical artifacts involving the sheriff's office for the public to admire.

The installation of an elevator will make its second-story level (currently, that vacant space is only reachable by stairs) usable by the sheriff, as well.

The second structure on the Krowse Building's east side is smaller and will get mechanical system overhauls and upgrades, plus added improvements like hardened communications systems and backup power for a county-specific emergency operations center that will be located there. Its staff currently operates out of locations downtown and at Oklahoma City's emergency operations center.

Lingo Construction Services Inc. is working with project designer AHMM (Allford, Hall, Monaghan, Morris) to execute the job.

Lingo was hired by the county to oversee the job as its construction manager earlier this month to deliver a completed project for no more than $17,493,713.

The agreement calls for construction to begin no later than Jan. 1, 2025, and to conclude no later than Dec. 31, 2026, though county officials said the design and construction team already are ahead of schedule.

Lingo will be paid about $830,000 to manage the job, which likely will include some of its construction teams, plus subcontractors from other firms.

Oklahoma County will pay for the renovation with $10 million from the $260 million jail bond issue, just more than $5 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds and $2.48 million of county-provided funds.

Building served as U.S. Army Reserve Center until about 15 years ago

The Krowse U.S. Army Reserve Center functioned in that capacity for nearly 50 years before a U.S. government Base Closure and Realignment study recommended it be closed in 2005.

Before that, The Oklahoman reported suspected arsonists attempted to damage it by setting fires near dynamite stored inside to cover up an alleged theft.

After it was vacated by the federal government, it sat empty for years before being used by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation as a temporary home after that agency's building had to be renovated in 2013 because of flood damage.

Former Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor decided to use the property as his agency's administrative headquarters in October 2019 as it prepared to turn operations of the Oklahoma County jail over to the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority.

Oklahoma County sheriff's office staff members working out of the jail moved into the Krowse Building in May 2020.

When commissioners decided to ask voters to approve a $260 million bond issue to build a new jail in 2022, ballot language stipulated some funds from the measure would be used to build new offices for the sheriff as part of the larger jail project.

But even before voters approved that bond issue in June 2022, members of Oklahoma County's Board of County Commissioners voted 2-to-1 to sell the Krowse Building to the Oklahoma Military Department for $3 million, planning to use that toward building the sheriff a building.

In April 2022, commissioners considered and approved an updated agreement (also by a 2-to-1 vote) with the state that included also getting five acres adjacent to the Krowse property to provide a location for the project.

However, that deal never closed, leaving Oklahoma County's sheriff with the existing building for the agency's use.

Agreement puts contractor in driver's seat to make timeline, budget

County Engineer Stacey Trumbo said its contract with Lingo enables the contractor to work with designer Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) to keep the job from exceeding its budget.

Plus, it gives Lingo the power to acquire needed materials for the job without having to bid those items separately, hopefully eliminating delays that could cause supply chain kinks potentially delaying the project's completion.

"There are a lot of items out there that are 40, 50 or 60 weeks away from delivery. We can order early. This will give us some abilities that we normally haven't had," Trumbo said. "This is the first contract of this type for Oklahoma County, and I am pretty excited about that."

Wade Scaramucci, director of AHMM's Oklahoma City office, said the firm is excited to be working with Lingo to design and execute the project.

"Oklahoma City is really an interesting place, where I think it is focusing on becoming better, not necessarily bigger, and we believe we have a lot of opportunity to help move that discussion forward (by using) some of our international experience to our best ability."

AHMM opened its Oklahoma City office, which designs projects across North America, about 15 years ago.

What made Oklahoma County's project so attractive was that it gave the firm a chance to make provide quality services to an agency that does an important but often thankless job, plus provided it with a chance to design a project involving a building type that doesn't normally get a lot of attention.

"There's a lot of rebuilding needing done, and often, facilities for the state or county are not exactly at the first of the list," Scaramucci said. "We believe all buildings (like Krowse) can and should be retuned to be the best possible version of themselves to support the people who work in them."

Current Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III applauded county commissioners for following through on the bond issue proposal.

The upgrades will give his agency more room to handle records requests and conduct other day-to-day activities like interviewing witnesses and suspects, to provide finger-printing services to the general public, to host public meetings and more.

"We are going to try to make this more user friendly for the public, create a space that both our county residents and our staff can be proud of and have something we can use in our everyday job that will not only be good for the office, but our citizens as well," Johnson said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County transforming Army Reserve building into sheriff offices