Effective Friday, May 29, the Riverside Downtown Police Headquarters has closed and is designated for demolition ahead of a new station being built on the same site. Construction for the new station is slated to begin this July and will be completed around late 2028.
The change follows the city council’s unanimous approval of a memorandum on July 1, 2025 which was brought forward by the Riverside Police Department (RPD). While the new facility is constructed, the downtown station personnel will be relocated to the station on 10540 Magnolia Ave, Riverside, seven miles away from the current location. During this time, the RPD will operate solely out of the Magnolia Station and the Lincoln Station located on 8181 Lincoln Ave.
Located at 4102 Orange St., the new station will serve 320,000 city residents and accommodate more than 630 police department employees from divisions including the Office of the Chief of Police, Personnel and Training, Records Bureau, Internal Affairs and Community Services.
The RPD explained the need for the new station by citing that the old one, built in 1963, had various issues. These included outdated heating and cooling, rusty pipes running along electronic equipment and poorly laid out work areas. Some of the building’s infrastructure operated at distracting volumes, like the 1960s era main switch gear which produced decibel levels of 90-100, between that of a gas lawn mower and a motorcycle. The main generator, manufactured in the 1980s, required continual repair and produced substantial greenhouse gases and pollutants.
The police department has argued that, compared to renovating the existing structure, a new construction would improve layout and functionality, reduce maintenance costs and follow a shorter construction schedule. They’ve suggested the project would be energy efficient and focus its design to meet critical needs. While renovating would be cheaper with an upfront cost of 49-million, it would limit design flexibility and risk ignoring unforeseen conditions like asbestos or structural issues. 
The city entered a $3.3 million contract with Holt Architects of Palm Desert to design the station, proposed as a three-level, 37,838-square-foot building. Holt Architects of Palm Desert is an architecture firm which has designed public service buildings for counties throughout the Inland Empire, including Indio and San Bernardino.
The project has been granted a budget of $62 million, increased from an original $59.5 million which was allotted. Much of the funding will be provided by Measure Z, an existing 1 cent sales tax on the ballot to be renewed and altered in November. If approved, the renewal would raise the tax to 1.25 cents, generating an estimated $21 million for public services such as firefighter and police services and repairing infrastructure like the police station.
Ward 1 council member Philip Falcone, who voted to approve the measure, cited that members of the city council including himself prefer to save and reuse old facilities, but it’s “just not feasible with this building.” Additionally, he noted that other city departments have received new headquarters in recent decades, but police facilities have been neglected.
