Gilbert hands over keys to new jail
Officials took possession of the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center on March 18
Dan Gilbert’s organization has officially handed over the keys to Wayne County’s new jail and courthouse complex in Detroit, starting the clock for a six-month deadline for county officials to move inmates, courts staff and other employees to the site.
Aside from a small list of to-do items, Gilbert’s Bedrock firm is now essentially finished constructing the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center and the county took possession of it March 18, the county’s Corporation Counsel James Heath on Thursday told county commissioners.
The new complex, off Interstate 75 near East Ferry Street, will house the county’s 2,280-bed jail, juvenile detention facility, criminal courthouse and sheriff and prosecutor staff and administrative offices.
County officials now have until mid-September to move everyone over and vacate the existing adult and juvenile jails and Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in downtown. Those older buildings then go to Bedrock, which reportedly intends to demolish them, although it has yet to announce its long-term plans.
Bedrock built the new justice complex for Wayne County as part of a 2018 deal. The complex was originally slated to be done in mid-2022, but the timeline was pushed back, first by the COVID-19 pandemic, and later by the need for more time to complete the new buildings to the county’s satisfaction.
Costs have also come in higher than expected.
The complex’s design and construction was originally budgeted at $533.6 million, with the county’s costs set at $401.3 million and Bedrock’s at $132.3 million.
Total costs now stand at $670.7 million, with the county’s share at $502.8 million and Bedrock’s share at $167.9 million, according to documents obtained by the Free Press. The documents offer fuller details of the project than previously available.
For the county, the biggest extra cost was about $35 million for a new DTE Energy central utility plant to service the justice complex.
The plant wasn’t in the original plans, but became necessary after the city of Detroit’s long-standing solid waste incinerator, Detroit Renewable Power, which county officials say was going to provide power to the justice complex, was shuttered in 2019 and subsequently demolished.
The county’s next big extra expense, just under $28 million, was buying out Gilbert’s organization from a future parking fees collection deal so that justice center employees can park for free at work.
Heath, the corporation counsel, told commissioners Thursday that they intend to have a final tally of all project expenses by early May. But so far, change orders that are the county’s
financial responsibility have been minimal, he said.
“There’s only been roughly $3 million in change orders throughout this entire project to date,” Heath said. “That is really a remarkable number ... that’s about half a percent of the total cost for Rock and (the) county to build the facility.”
He added, “All of us on the county side, when we do the final tally of all of this, we will have a lot to be proud of for the manner in which we’ve all been good stewards of the county’s money.”
A Bedrock representative did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
County officials struck a deal with Gilbert’s firm in 2018 to build the justice complex after the county abandoned plans to build on its own a jail along Gratiot in downtown, after costs spiraled $91 million over the project’s $300 million budget.
The 2018 deal gave Gilbert’s organization the unfinished jail site for a $21.3 million purchase price, plus future ownership of the county’s Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, juvenile detention center and the Division I and Division II jail sites.
Separately, the county is retaining ownership of its Division III jail in Hamtramck — the William Dickerson Detention Facility — but is preparing to relocate all juveniles and staff there to the new justice complex, county officials said.