NAHANT — Nahant officials got their first full look at the price tag for replacing the town’s aging fire and police stations as architects outlined a series of options — including a single combined public safety complex and separate fire and police buildings on town-owned land.

Facing fire and police stations that architects with Context Architecture say are at the end of their useful lives, Nahant’s Select Board reviewed a feasibility study that puts the price of replacement in today’s market at levels far above a decade-old estimate, with construction costs for public safety buildings now roughly doubled since 2016.

“If you look back about 10 years ago, 2016 … construction costs were about half of what we’re facing right now,” said Jeff Shaw, president and principal at Context Architecture.

Project Manager Sean Coveney outlined four options for Nahant’s public safety facilities: rebuilding the fire station on its current Flash Road site, constructing a new fire station on town-owned land situated between the Department of Public Works and the school, building a new police station near High Street, or combining fire and police into a single public safety complex at the DPW site, each with a different cost.

To construct a combined public safety building, Context Architecture estimated a total cost of  $34,289,871. Another option proposed is to build a new fire station at the same location, with construction costs totaling $26,610,345. The final option for a new fire department is to build a new station on the current station’s existing site, which totals $26,894,928. The construction of a new police station would cost the town $19,601,893 in construction costs and would be located behind the current station on Flash Road.

Coveney said constructing a combined public safety building will provide “significant cost savings” by having one building and one procurement process, contract, and contractors for the combined departments.

“You’d have one doing it all,” he said.

Vice-Chairman Patrick O’Reilly warned that, at a combined police–fire complex, the town would be “cramming too much into that site” and that the presence of emergency vehicles there could become dangerous, but a single fire station is more manageable.

Coveney said the existing fire station is undersized and “has basically no storage.”

Additionally, spaces within the fire station — which itself does not meet the town’s structural code — are being used in more than one capacity. Many of the fixtures, including lights and plumbing, are at the end of their working lives, Coveney said.

He added that the building’s vehicle exhaust does not work.

“The building is kind of at the end of its life, based on our analysis and our consultants’ analysis,” said Coveney regarding the fire station.

Like the fire station, many of the fixtures and systems at the police station are worn out, and at the end of their useful life, Coveney said.

The police station, originally designed as a school before being converted, also has poor public access and egress, Coveney said.