Old BJ’s to be new Cobb Police training center

Cobb County Police will soon have a training center that can handle the needs of a growing department.

The Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved the purchase on Oct. 9 of the old BJ’s Wholesale property on nearly 20 acres at 2435 East-West Connector in Austell.

The 115,369-square-foot building will become Cobb’s Police Training Facility.

“Our current training center was built in 1992 for 600 fire and police officers,” said Public Safety Director Sam Heaton in a news release. “We’ve grown to more than 1,400 now. This facility will allow us to enhance our training programs moving forward, and the indoor firing range will reduce the impact to surrounding neighborhoods.”

The $10,750,000 purchase is part of the 2016 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) program. However, Heaton said the county could receive as much as $3,140,000 from a lease termination refund to BJ’s — money that would go into the renovation of the building.

Heaton said the old training facility, off County Services Parkway, will be redone for use by the Fire Department only.

Cobb District 4 Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who represents the neighborhood, said she was thankful for the purchase. “Hopefully with the redevelopment and the traffic coming to that property, it will boost the local economy,” Cupid said.