‘Really Sad’: City Backs Out Of Remodeling PD Into Arts Center

An exterior view of the old Maricopa Police Station on Civic Center Plaza on Feb. 13, 2025. [Monica D. Spencer] — An exterior view of the old Maricopa Police Station on Civic Center Plaza on Feb. 13, 2025. In 2023, the city proposed remodeling the building into an arts center and business incubator, but the plans were recently nixed. [Monica D. Spencer]

After two years of discussions, the Maricopa city government has decided to back out of its proposal to give a permanent home to the city’s burgeoning art community.

Remodeling the former police station into an arts center would cost nearly triple the original budget, said Assistant City Manager Jennifer Brown during the municipality’s annual futures planning meeting yesterday.

The city had budgeted $1.2 million to design and remodel evidence rooms and jail cells into art galleries and stages.

“The actual cost is $3.3 million, significantly higher than we thought,” said Brown.

A bigger obstacle than the money is the square footage. Fitting an adequately spacious auditorium with proper acoustics along with galleries and a small business incubator would require building additional space. The whole project just proved too costly, Brown said.

“Could we dig out the floor? Could we raise the roof? And I think those would at least double the cost of this, so that didn’t really seem feasible,” Brown said.

City officials and council members mulled over the potential uses for the building, stating it could make “appropriate office space” or even an indoor gun range for the Maricopa Police Department.

The news came across as a shock to members of the arts community, including Laura Olivieri, director of the Maricopa Music Circle chamber orchestra.

“We were really hoping that the new arts center would become a reality,” she said yesterday afternoon.

Christina Smalley, a board member of the Maricopa Chorus and Villages at Rancho El Dorado resident, had just two words for the news: “Extremely disappointed.”

‘Really sad’: City backs out of remodeling PD into arts center — A view of a preliminary floor plan of a future arts center presented at a Cultural Affairs and Arts Committee meeting on Oct. 16, 2023. Currently, the committee hopes to see the Maricopa Police Department headquarters converted into an art center for performing and visual arts. [Monica D. Spencer]

“If they don’t [move] forth with the Maricopa arts center, then once again they’re backing out of their promise to the art community,” she said. “It’s just so disheartening because artists need a place to perform and show off and display their artwork. I’m just really sad.”

In the meantime, city officials suggested the arts community partner with local schools to use their auditoriums and seek existing gallery spaces, while figuring out how to assist these organizations with costs and marketing.

However, Smalley said she wasn’t amused by the suggestion.

“That’s kind of what we do now, and it’s temporary,” she said. “We have no place to rehearse except for people’s homes and squeezing everybody into a small home with a small space. We just want [the city] to make good on their promise and find us a home.”

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