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Officials To Provide Update On Wayne County Jail Project

DETROIT (WWJ) - Officials are expected to reveal new information on a proposed Wayne County Jail and criminal justice center on Wednesday.

County Executive Warren Evans is holding a 10 a.m. news conference with an announcement regarding the proposed criminal justice center.

On Monday, the Detroit Board of Education signed off on a sale of nearly one-and-a-half acres of property in the area of I-75 and I-94. The district will be paid $220,000 by Beaubien Associates, an affiliate of Dan Gilbert's Bedrock Management Services. The purchase is part of a land swap with the City of Detroit and Wayne County to provide Gilbert the abandoned jail construction site on Gratiot for future development.

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A rendering of the proposed criminal justice center (photo: Rock Ventures)

 

 

The county in December announced it was abandoning plans to complete the half-finished jail on Gratiot near Greektown in downtown Detroit. The unfinished 2,000-bed jail is an eyesore across from the county courthouse. Construction stopped in June of 2013 because the project was wildly over budget, with cost overruns totaling more than $90 million. The idled site is reportedly costing taxpayers about $1.2 million a month in bond payments, storage and security.

If the Rock deal goes through, Gilbert's company would bulldoze the failed jail, and build a mixed-use development on the site. The development initially was proposed to include a Major League Soccer stadium, but new plans call for MLS to be played at Ford Field if the league chooses Detroit.

 

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