In 2023, the Cohasset Special Town Meeting approved $10.4 million to purchase 135 King Street—a commercial office building that represented a rare and time-sensitive opportunity for the Town. The goal was to establish a modern, consolidated Public Safety Building to house the Cohasset Police Department, a Fire Substation, a Town and School Data Center, and an Emergency Operations Center/Community Meeting Room.
The location was, and remains, the right one. It’s strategically positioned, cost-effective compared to new construction, and the only commercial property in town large enough to support such a facility.
What Changed? The original planning team acted with dedication and urgency—but without the benefit of formal experience in designing or constructing a modern public safety facility. That’s entirely understandable. Designing a police and fire station is vastly more complex than building a home or a typical commercial structure. These buildings are governed by strict building codes, contain highly specialized infrastructure, and must be constructed to remain fully operational during emergencies.
Now, with the benefit of expert consultation, input from our police and fire departments, and comprehensive feasibility, response time, and engineering studies, we have a full and accurate picture of what it will take to transform 135 King Street into a safe, compliant, and future-ready public safety complex that will serve Cohasset for the next 50 years.
A Right-Sized, Scaled-Back & Modest Design
Importantly, the current design has been scaled back three separate times to control costs while still meeting critical functional requirements. The final plan is for a 21,300-square-foot facility that includes:
A modern, compliant police station, equipped with secure evidence storage, interview rooms, detention cells, booking space, and specialized communications infrastructure.
A two-bay fire substation, reducing response times to Beechwood and North Cohasset, designed to NFPA standards with appropriate gear decontamination zones and fire alerting systems.
A dual-use Emergency Operations Center and public meeting space, ready to coordinate town-wide response in the event of natural disasters, mass casualty events, or long-term outages.
A secure municipal and school data center, serving as the backbone of Cohasset’s cybersecurity and technology continuity plan.
Why the Additional $17M?
After engineering assessments, building code reviews, and detailed public safety design planning, the project is now estimated at $27.4 million. With $10.4 million already appropriated, voters will be asked to consider a supplemental $17 million at the November 3rd Special Town Meeting. This revised figure accounts for:
Upgrading from a commercial building to a Level IV essential facility as required for public safety structures.
Full ADA compliance, including elevator installation, accessible cells, booking rooms, restrooms, and public spaces.
Environmental and civil engineering work, including soil testing, drainage, traffic circulation, and parking lot design.
Public safety-specific infrastructure, such as sallyports, juvenile sight-and-sound separation, secure armory and evidence rooms, communications gear, and backup power.
These are standard requirements—regardless of whether a town is the size of Cohasset or much larger like Marshfield, Scituate, Hingham, or Pembroke.
Phase One: Permitting Progress and Project Readiness
We have officially designated the King Street project as Phase One of Cohasset’s long-term Public Safety Infrastructure Initiative. Since the 2023 acquisition, our new team has worked diligently and has successfully navigated nearly all required Town permitting boards and committees. One key step remains: A traffic study is underway to support a formal petition to MassDOT for a traffic signal at the King Street entrance. If funding is approved at the Special Town Meeting, the project will be shovel-ready by January 1, 2026.
Looking Ahead to Phase Two
When we close out Phase One, hopefully with favorable voter support this fall, we will immediately begin the rigorous final planning and data-based budgeting for Phase Two. Phase Two will transform the current police and fire station on Elm Street into:
A code-compliant, modernized Cohasset Fire Department headquarters,
A new home for the Cohasset Safe Harbor Coalition, and
A permanent hub for the Cohasset IT Department, which is critical to town-wide operations and cybersecurity.
Preliminary drawings and conceptual plans for Phase Two are already in place, but it will require separate bidding, funding, and authorization at a future Town Meeting.
Moving Forward—Together
It’s time to move forward—together—with facts, transparency, and mutual respect.
The team who originally brought this idea forward—many of whom are no longer in public service—did so with great effort and honorable intentions. We understand how confusion around the original scope and budget occurred. What matters now is that we communicate clearly with the voters of Cohasset about the revised plan, its necessity, and its long-term value.
We welcome and encourage informed questions and thoughtful input from Cohasset residents and taxpayers. At the same time, it’s important to recognize that inflammatory online commentary from out-of-town individuals with no stake in the outcome does not reflect the values or interests of our community. This is a Cohasset decision—and it deserves civil, fact-based discussion.
In Summary
The King Street project is an investment in the safety, resilience, and future of our community. It is designed to ensure that our first responders—police, fire, emergency management, and municipal technology teams—have the modern, mission-ready facility they need to protect and serve Cohasset for decades to come. This project is not just about infrastructure—it’s about lives. By strategically positioning our emergency resources, we will significantly reduce response times to all our schools (located west of the railroad tracks), North Cohasset, and the entire Beechwood area. Every minute matters—and in some cases, every minute saves lives.
We urge all residents to stay informed, stay engaged, and stand with us in shaping Cohasset’s future. Join us at the November Special Town Meeting. Let’s move forward—together.