There has been no secret how badly the Detroit-to-MLS efforts need the Wayne County Jail Site. In our list of the three biggest obstacles for the MLS effort, we cited this debacle over the site just south of Ford Field as a major hurdle that Dan Gilbert and his ownership group needed to overcome. It would appear that Gilbert took this issue just as seriously as we hoped as news has come out that Gilbert proposed a solution to Wayne County.
Rock Ventures submitted an offer to Wayne County for a “new, state-of-the-art, consolidated criminal justice center” that includes the construction of new adult and juvenile detention facilities and a new criminal courthouse that would replace the current Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.
Explicit details were laid out by both Wayne County and Rock Ventures’ (Gilbert’s group) representatives:
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans released a comment regarding the new proposal on Monday night.
“Today, the County received a proposal from Rock Ventures as an alternative to completing the jail at Gratiot. We will withhold further comment on the offer until we’ve had the opportunity to review it,” Evans said.
“The County estimates the completion of the jail on Gratiot Avenue and modest renovations to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice will be $300 million,” a press release from Rock Ventures said Monday. “Rock Ventures is prepared to build the County a new, high-tech criminal justice complex (estimated cost of $420 million) for the same $300 million, in exchange for the transfer of the Gratiot Avenue property and a credit for the savings a new consolidated criminal justice complex will provide.”
This news falls just after the application process for MLS expansion started on January 31st. This news will only add to the growing support for the MLS to come to Detroit.
