When the City of Phoenix chose to relocate its police headquarters into a 27-story former financial tower in the heart of downtown, it became one of the most complex public safety adaptive reuse efforts in the country. This session tells the story behind that transformation, what drove the decision, why adaptive reuse was selected over new construction, and what it truly takes to convert a commercial high-rise into a secure, mission-ready law enforcement facility for 1,500 sworn and professional staff. This presentation highlights the real benefits and real challenges of adaptive reuse in public safety design. Benefits include accelerated delivery timelines, urban revitalization, sustainability advantages through embodied carbon retention and cost efficiency by leveraging existing structure and location. But reuse of a 50-year-old building also brought major challenges: retrofitting secure circulation in a public tower, replacing outdated mechanical infrastructure, addressing life-safety code triggers, abating hazardous materials and protecting operational continuity during phased construction in a dense urban environment. This session delivers practical insight—what worked, what didn’t, and what every agency and design team should evaluate before committing to adaptive reuse as a project strategy.