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The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is requesting more than $100 million in state funding to build a new headquarters somewhere in the Topeka area.
KBI director Tony Mattivi told the Legislative Budget Committee in late November that employee safety is a key reason why the agency needs a new headquarters to replace its current one in an old school building at S.W. 17th and Topeka Boulevard.
“The one thing I would ask you to keep in mind as we make this very large request for new headquarters building is that the one we’re in just isn’t safe,” Mattivi said.
How much would a new KBI building cost?
The cost estimate for a new facility $114.4 million, not including site acquisition for the 7-9 acres on which the 134,000-square-foot building would sit.
That’s higher than what lawmakers on a different budget committee were told earlier in November, and what a state building construction committee was told in October. There, agency and legislative staff said the KBI was requesting $93 million in fiscal year 2026 for construction of a new headquarters.
“In our original budget submission we used a preliminary estimate on a new headquarters facility, subject to change upon completion of the needs assessment,” Mattivi said in written testimony. “Now that the needs assessment is in the process of being finalized, we have been provided with updated square footage and construction costs.”
How much would renovation cost?
“We can talk about how much would it cost to upgrade it, how much would it cost to make it a safer location,” Mattivi said at the meeting. “We have looked at those numbers. We’ve had an assessment done. What the professionals come up with, the answer that the professionals come away with, is you need a new building. You need a new purpose-built facility. I can get down into the weeds with you. I suspect today is not the day for that. We have the numbers, we have the data.”
Mattivi didn’t provide a cost estimate for renovation. He said the KBI only has a portion of the assessment, but a full report will be available before the legislative session, and, “We will have those numbers for comparison purposes.”
In written testimony, Mattivi wrote that “the firm’s assessment of our headquarters was ‘that due to the size restraints and required upgrades of the current KBI headquarters, this site will not continue to accommodate a functioning workplace.'”
He added that “It is impossible to bring physical security up to an appropriate level at this location.”
Why does the KBI need a new headquarters?
“The short version is, our headquarters isn’t safe,” Mattivi said. “I mean, that’s the bottom line. Our headquarters building is not safe.”
He gave two reasons: location and fire risk.
“I don’t mean to be unkind to anyone, but we’re in a horrible neighborhood,” he said. “We have two separate buildings. We have no security or perimeter fencing. Employees walk between our buildings through an alley, and are often confronted with homeless people and drug addicts, because that’s what surrounds the KBI building. For us to be in that location with no security, no perimeter, is just unsafe, and I feel uncomfortable with the environment that we are putting our folks in given the location where we sit and the lack of security.
“In addition, although we’re in a beautiful, old stone building, much of that building is wood construction, and we don’t have a fire suppression system in that building. The fourth floor of our building was never intended for human occupancy. It was intended for record storage, and we have human beings working up there, primarily in wood construction, with no fire suppression system.
“I am failing miserably in my obligation to give our employees a safe place to work. We are asking — I am asking — you for your help to address that.”
Roughly 250 state government employees work at the facility, Mattivi reported.
“The agency notes that the current headquarters requires substantial maintenance and improvement projects, suffers from insufficient spacing, cannot accommodate all training and law enforcement incident needs, provides insufficient security, and contains a bat infestation,” a previous budget document stated. “Furthermore, the building lacks adequate ADA compliance and fire suppression systems. The agency notes that retrofits to the current facility are hindered from addressing many of the problems and needs by inherent location and structural limitations.”
Would the KBI and KHP have a joint headquarters?
While the KHP owns its headquarters building in central Topeka, the Kansas Highway Patrol is leasing space downtown that expires in 2028.
There had been previous suggestions by officials with both agencies that the KBI and KHP could pursue a new, joint headquarters facility. That no longer appears to be on the table.
“We talked at different points about this perhaps even being a consolidated headquarters for both us and the Highway Patrol,” Mattivi said. “And D of A’s (Kansas Department of Administration) decision at the end of the day is Highway Patrol should go into existing space, and I believe that as their plan. But for us, their decision, and we completely agree, is that a purpose-built facility is the most efficient solution.”
Where would a new KBI headquarters be located?
Mattivi said in written testimony that a new facility would remain in the Topeka area.
“We have begun to look at site selection in the surrounding Topeka metro area for a new headquarters facility and anticipate seeking a competitive bid on both land or new construction development on a KBI headquarters,” he wrote.
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
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