Land purchase OK’d to build new Crime Lab

$4.095M price tag approved by state for property in NLR

The Arkansas Department of Public Safety has accepted a counteroffer to purchase land for construction of a new Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in North Little Rock, a spokeswoman for the department said Tuesday.

The department made an offer March 6 to purchase the property for $4.095 million, and the seller made a counteroffer March 8 “which contained a request for an easement on the south side of the property so people could have access to the soccer fields near Arkansas Energy and Environment, and also required us to comply with the Northshore Business Park Bill of Assurance,” department spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said in a written statement.

“The counteroffer did not change the offered price. We accepted the counteroffer [on March 11],” she said.

The property is between the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment, 5301 Northshore Drive, and Enable Midstream Partners, 5300 Northshore Cove, and the property owner is Pfeifer Family Limited Partnership #1, Murphy said earlier this month.

“There is no closing date set since there are some due diligence issues that need to be done,” she said Tuesday.

Asked when construction of the building is expected to be completed, Murphy said “There is no completion date set since it is so early in the project.”

Dr. Ted Brown, director of the state Crime Lab, told state lawmakers March 8 that there had been a preliminary finding for the need of a 180,000-square-foot building to best serve Arkansans.

Murphy said Tuesday that “Dr. Brown was referring to what WER said the lab size would need to be based on their meetings with lab personnel, but there [are] no final plans completed, and those would have to be done in conjunction with a contractor who has not yet been hired.”

In response to questions from state Rep. Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, during the March 8 meeting of the Joint Budget Committee, Department of Public Safety Secretary Mike Hagar said the department had made an offer to purchase about 18 acres of land on Northshore

Drive that abuts other state property for construction of a new state Crime Laboratory.

At that time, Hugh Finkelstein, chief of staff at the Public Safety Department, told lawmakers the $4.05 million offer was the appraised value of the land from Ferstl & Associates.

“One of the major parts of this is that land is absolutely ready to build as we speak.” he said.

In addition, the state Department of Energy and Environment anticipates it will run out of room and the land purchase for the Crime Lab building would allow the Department of Energy and Environment to build on the land in the future to have room to house its employees, Finkelstein said.

On Jan. 26, the Arkansas Legislative Council approved the state Department of Public Safety’s request for $4.4 million from the state’s restricted reserve fund to allow the state Crime Laboratory to purchase the land for construction of a new Crime Lab. In 2023, the Legislature set aside up to $200 million in the state’s restricted reserve fund for the construction of the new building.

Karen Perry, chief financial officer for the state Department of Public Safety, told a legislative panel in January “we are in negotiations” for the purchase of the land for a new Crime Lab, and she expected most of the $4.4 million would go toward the land purchase. Any funds not utilized for this purpose will be put toward future construction of the building, Hagar said in a letter dated Dec. 11 to state Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Hudson.

The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory is currently located in west Little Rock.

The building is at 3 Natural Resources Drive and is adjacent to the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission buildings.

The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory opened its doors in August 1981 in a building it shared with the headquarters of the Arkansas State Police, according to a consultant’s report. In 1997, the State Police relocated to southwest Little Rock, leaving the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory as the sole occupant.