The City of Pelham was thinking ahead when it began building a new public safety building last year.

The new 46,500 square-foot facility will replace the department&8217;s old home &8212;which measures a mere 10,000 square-feet.

&8220;This building is designed for future growth,&8221; Pelham police lieutenant Scott Tucker said. &8220;With how fast this community is growing we need to be able to keep up. This building was designed not for today but for the future.&8221;

Tucker said the new space is a welcome sight from the cramped quarters that the department has operated in for decades.

&8220;We&8217;ve all been on top of each other for some time now,&8221; he said. &8220;The old building was built in 1975 and we&8217;ve had to add on to it a couple of times.&8221;

The new facility will feature a state of the art courtroom and jail as well as new amenities that include an expanded workout facility, courtroom and indoor 25-meter firing range.

The courtroom can now accommodate as many as 300 people &8212; nearly tripling the 125-person capacity of the old courtroom.

&8220;The courtroom can accommodate a lot more people and the building will make our operations safer and more efficient,&8221; Pelham police captain Tommy Thomas said.

The cost for the new facility sits somewhere around $4.6 million &8212; a price tag that Thomas said is well worth it.

&8220;We went into this project knowing that we didn&8217;t want the building to be too small the day we moved into it,&8221; he said.

The department is scheduled to make the move into the facility in September.

&8220;A lot of technical things have to be ironed out before then,&8221; Thomas said. &8220;But everything has been smooth with no major delays.&8221;

The same firm designed responsible for designing the Shelby County Sheriff&8217;s new facility also designed Pelham&8217;s, Tucker said.

&8220;This will be the most state-of-the-art and advance police department facility in the county,&8221; he said. &8220;And one of the best in the state.&8221;