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MARCO ISLAND — If the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s new Joint Marine Operations Center bears a striking resemblance to the Sheriff’s Office’s Marco Island substation, that would be because they are one in the same.

But while the walls may be the same, authorities say what’s happening inside is different and will help make Collier’s coast and waterways safer.

The Joint Marine Operations Center, 990 N. Barfield Drive, is a partnership between the Sheriff’s Office and six local, state and federal marine law enforcement agencies in Southwest Florida: the Marco Island Police Department, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Through the partnership, each agency will have access to the center, and it will provide a central base. The center offers ready access to the Gulf of Mexico.

“It provides us with a flexible base of operations that allows for individual and cooperative operations on an as-needed basis,” said Lt. Dave Johnson of the Sheriff’s Office’s Special Operations.

Agencies will use the center for several marine matters, including boating safety, domestic security, maritime human smuggling, mass-migration, boat thefts and environmental concerns.

A former ecology lab, for years the building has been the Sheriff’s Office’s Marco Island substation. But with the establishment of the Marco Island Police Department about a decade ago, the substation has been under-utilized, Johnson said.

Allowing partner agencies to use the building was a logical and cost-effective step.

“It’s a very proactive move by the Sheriff’s Office,” said Capt. Jayson Horadam of the FWC.

Being the southernmost major city on Florida’s west coast, Marco Island is strategically important for all the agencies, Johnson said. And while all the agencies involved in the partnership worked together informally in the past, the new center will make those partnerships stronger.

That is important in a post-Sept. 11 world, said Lazaro Guzman, a supervisory agent with the border patrol.

“We work jointly on these operations,” Guzman said. “This isn’t new. This is something that is ongoing.”

Johnson would not disclose specific additions or equipment planned for the center, so as not to let bad guys know what capabilities the agencies will have there.

“We’ll have here what we need here,” is all Johnson would say.

Converting the substation into the operations center comes at no additional cost to taxpayers, Johnson said. Any changes the agencies need to make to the center will come from their own budgets.

Converting the substation into the operations center is an example of how law enforcement agencies can find creative ways to maintain or even improve services while working within a tight budget, officials said.

“Everybody benefits from this. Nobody is a loser,” Johnson said. “In the end it’s the public that wins the most because they’re getting the higher level of service.”

Horadam said the center will allow all of the agencies to respond faster and in a more coordinated manner.

“We’ve always worked very closely with the Sheriff’s Office,” Horadam said. “This just solidifies the partnerships between the agencies that are involved.”