ROCKLAND, Maine — A leading option for a new police station is a section of the Rockland Harbor Park complex on Water Street.
City Manager Tom Luttrell made a presentation Monday evening on the five options the city is considering. The City Council has held a series of closed-door executive sessions over the past few months concerning possible police stations.
The options are 5 Payne Ave. which was formerly a brewery owned by Daniel Pease; 170 Pleasant St. which is the former Sierra Peaks manufacturing plant that voters rejected buying in November 2025; 139 Rankin St. which has been occupied by multiple businesses, including a dance studio, and owned by Brad and Ilmi Carter; 120 Tillson Ave. which is a former sardine plant now converted to offices and owned by the O’Hara Corp.; and 12 Water St. owned by Rockland Harbor Park Inc.
The city manager said the Water Street location offers a rent-to-own option. The monthly rent would be $18,876 with a purchase price of $3.6 million for 10,786 square feet of the Rockland Harbor Park building. The space being eyed by the city is on the lower level on the west side of the day care center.
The Rockland Harbor Park building has 77,000 square feet of space. Since it was built 25 years ago, the sprawling waterfront commercial building on Water Street has been home to multiple large-scale employers starting with MBNA and then Boston Financial. In 2022, Stuart Smith, one of the principals of the property owner Rockland Harbor Park Inc., said the 77,000-square-foot building was being developed similar to the Breakwater Marketplace on Camden Street, of which he is also one of the owners. Space at the Water Street building is available from as little as 200 square feet.
The manager said the Water Street location has advantages, including that the city would own its space. The city has applied for a congressional grant to help pay for space for a police station. Luttrell said U.S. Sen. Angus King’s office has notified the city that its application has progressed. The amount for Water Street from the grant is nearly $2 million. The city also expects to receive $565,000 for the sale of its condominium space at 1 Police Plaza, which the police station has occupied since 2024. The balance of the $1 million would be paid for through the tax revenues from the Cranberry Isle tax increment financing district (the new Breakwater Commons nursing home off Old County Road).
With that financing, the city would not need to get voter approval for a bond referendum.
The price for the 170 Pleasant St. site remains at $5 million, which includes purchase and renovations. The site would have 13,421 square feet of space. In November 2025, Rockland voters rejected borrowing that amount 1,294 to 1,052. Luttrell noted with that site, the city could get a federal grant of nearly $2.5 million. This would leave slightly less than $2 million to borrow to purchase and complete the project.
The price for the Payne Avenue site would be $6.5 million, which includes $1,475,000 for purchase and about $5 million for renovations. This has nearly 9,000 square feet.
The Rankin Street site would be for renting only at $30,000 a year with renovation costs of $1 million. Luttrell said the drawback with this, in addition to only a rental option, is the 4,665 square feet is not adequate for the department’s needs.
The Tillson Avenue site would be $363,775 annually to rent the second floor consisting of 14,551 square feet.
The council voted in March 2025 to sell its police station section of 1 Park Drive for $580,000 to the owner of the Park Street Grille on the street level of the building, contingent on the city finding another location for the department. The department has been at its current location since 2004 but has sought to move because of the poor condition of the property.
The council held a closed-door executive session at the end of the Monday’s meeting to discuss the potential sale.
The city manager and chief have scheduled a meeting for 5 p.m. Thursday at City Hall to discuss the police station issue with the public.
Police Chief Tim Carroll and city leaders have cited the poor condition of the existing police station.
“This is not just for convenience or to have a nice, new complex, or for growth. My biggest concern is the safety, health, and wellbeing of the staff that is housed at 1 Police Plaza,” Carroll said at meetings last year.
He said the city has conducted remediation efforts from water coming into the building through leaks in the roof and the walls but has not been able to get to the root of the problem. He said the flat roof has gaps around the HVAC systems that allow water in, and the brick exterior needs to be repointed. He said a flat roof is not the solution in a place like Maine. At one point last year during a rainstorm, two public services employees came down and a 5-gallon bucket was filling every two minutes inside the station, the chief said. All night, the workers were taking a bucket outside and dumping it while another bucket was being filled, he recounted.
The roof needs to be replaced along with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, the chief noted. The boiler also needs to be replaced, he said.
The Police Department has been at that location since 2004.
Police, fire and EMS all operated out of the Park Street building from 1983 until 2004, but quarters were extremely cramped. Dispatch also operated from the building until the city shifted to using Knox County Communications around 2001.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.
