City of Lake Wales May Purchase Family Elder Law Building to Provide Additional Police Department Space

A nimble move from the City of Lake Wales has brought a contract to purchase the newly-vacant offices of Family Elder Law on East Tillman Avenue to host additional space for the over-crowded Lake Wales Police Department.

Robert Connors

This 5,500 square-foot building on East Tillman Avenue may become an annex of the Lake Wales Police Department to relieve overcrowding at the current police headquarters. The building is now under a contract for purchase by the city pending commission approval of the move.

City Manager James Slaton brought the purchase of the 5,500 square-foot structure before the City Commission at Wednesday's workshop as a signed contract. The $775,000 purchase price, Slaton said, was well below the $870,000 appraised value of the building, which lies just across Tillman Avenue from the existing police headquarters.

Family Elder Law closed suddenly last month after client trust funds were lost. A proposed settlement of the legal issues involved is before the Florida Supreme Court. That settlement requires the restitution of the missing funds. Proceeds from the sale of the building are expected to aid in that settlement.

Slaton told commissioner that city staff had been "looking at ways to expand" to reduce overcrowding at the police department. When they learned the building would be sold they saw the proposed purchase as a less-costly solution, Construction of a new office building was anticipated to cost about $2 million, he said.

The agreed purchase price, still subject to commission approval at next Tuesday's meeting, includes all furnishings, so "there's some additional cost savings there," Slaton said.

Some "updates and remodeling" of the building will still be required, Slaton said, but he assured Commissioner Carol Gillespie that the location is well-suited to police department functions.

Slaton said that, if approved by the commission, the space would be used "to house police officers" and possibly "other municipal services."