GULF SHORES — A crowd gathered behind a row of orange cones that designated a safe zone. Smoke grenades were thrown, and the Gulf Shores SWAT team rolled onto the scene and ran toward a backdoor.

After securing the designated entryway, one of the officers shot the doorknob off and launched several stun grenades into the vacant building. After the area was "cleared," Gulf Shores Interim Chief Dan Netemeyer announced that construction and remodeling can officially begin at the Gulf Shores Justice Center at the old Sacred Heart Medical Office.

This was no normal groundbreaking but rather a ground breaching.

"We're cops. We always do things different, and this gives us an opportunity to tear something up along the way," Netemeyer said.

The city's court and jail will be in the same location once the new center opens so the "Alabama chain gang" of prisoners walking from the current facilities to the municipal court building will be a problem of the past.

"It's not safe for our officers, it's not safe for the prisoners, and it's just, it's a bad look," Netemeyer said. "So, we're glad that that will finally be coming to an end."

Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft said the city bought the building and some of the surrounding property in 2018 from the Sacred Heart Medical Group after they were unable to build a medical facility like they had planned. The city bought the site with the intent to build a medical operation, but after the South Baldwin Regional Medical Center built its freestanding emergency department right around the corner, the city decided this was a "surplus piece of property."

"But it had a great opportunity to fill this need," Craft said on the decision to make the building a justice center. "It's big enough, and it's perfect enough. It's got some undeveloped spaces that are perfect for building the kind of things a justice center needs."

Craft said the center will have a courtroom, interrogation areas, office spaces and jail facilities, which will be in a separate building to be built behind the currently standing facility. Craft said this project "needs to be done" to provide proper resources to the courts, magistrates and "everybody involved" in the justice departments for Gulf Shores.

Netemeyer said work is already partially underway on the property as the tree line has started to be cleared behind the building where the new jail building will be. This is the only major construction required for the site as the other building is already in place.

"The ground's already been broken. We simply need to fix this place, fix this building," Netemeyer said on the facility.

The lowest bidder for the project was Persons Services Corporation for $20,987,223. As previously reported by Gulf Coast Media, the project has a set completion date for summer 2026 with a total of 18 months for construction.

Buddy Persons, with Persons Services Corporation, spoke at the ground breaching on how his company is "super excited" to be in partnership with the City of Gulf Shores and the designers for the project. He also introduced David Allgood, who will be overseeing the project.

"This is going to be an awesome, awesome facility and we are so glad to be a part of it," Allgood said. "… Mayor Craft had a vision to bring this to life and now it's going to happen. We are thankful for being a part of it."

Grant Brown, Gulf Shores' director of recreational and cultural affairs, told Gulf Coast Media the breaching was to show just what the Gulf Shores SWAT team could do. When asked why they decided on a ground breaching rather than a groundbreaking he responded, "why not?"

"It's basically how the SWAT guys get into a secure building that they need to break into," Brown said on the breaching process.

He mentioned how breaching is not commonly needed in Gulf Shores, but the team is ready to be deployed if, and when, needed.