Wayne County will try to make a deal with Rock Ventures to have a soccer stadium built on the site of an unfinished jail, and have Dan Gilbert’s company build a criminal justice complex elsewhere.
The county executive, Warren Evans, in a statement, emphasizes that the deal is not completed. The offer from Dan Gilbert’s company would build a new criminal justice complex near I-75 in Detroit and replace Wayne County’s unfinished jail with a $1-billion commercial development, anchored by a new Major League Soccer stadium.
The county says if negotiations with Rock Ventures don’t pan out, the county would go back and restart the process of finishing the jail.
Rock Ventures is offering to build a new jail, county courthouse, offices for the sheriff and for prosecutors, and a new juvenile detention facility. The county would be responsible for 380-million dollars of the cost, Rock would pay the rest, about 150-million, plus any cost overruns.
The county says an offer from Walsh Contracting to finish the jail and renovate the Frank Murphy Courthouse would cost as much or more than the Rock venture to build new facilities, and would not include any overruns.
Getting the IRS to agree to change in the use of a bond issue to build the jail is an obstacle to the deal.