Is Wayne County jail project right fit for downtown?

County officials have all but said restarting construction at the stalled Wayne County Jail site downtown is the best bet of several options for continuing the beleaguered project.

Metro Detroit developers and real estate experts mostly agree, saying the infrastructure and other efficiencies afforded downtown easily make the case for the project continuing at the Gratiot site, just blocks from Greektown Casino. But others, including Quicken Loans chairman and founder Dan Gilbert — who has a financial interest in where the jail ultimately is built — said completing the jail downtown could hinder the progress of a burgeoning entertainment district.

"It's in everyone's best interest for that site to perform well (economically)," said Dan Kinkead, the director of projects at Detroit Future City, who helped design the strategic plan for the city's transformation. "It's a critical site for downtown, both because it represents a sizable land area for redevelopment and it's situated at the eastern edge of the CBD (central business district), and represents an important (link) to the neighborhoods to the east and to Gratiot overall."

Officials from Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano's Office delivered four options this month to the Wayne County Commission for moving forward with the Wayne County Jail. Two of them called for moving to the site of the former Mound Correctional Facility on Mound near East Davison, building space for at least 2,300 beds and a courthouse on the land at a cost of up to $651 million.

The others called for completing a build-out at the site at Gratiot and St. Antoine, which was approved by the county commission in late 2010, but stalled in June 2013 after cost overruns put the project $91 million over its expected $300-million price tag. The new projections could cost the county $372.5 million.

All four prices include the $157 million already spent at the Gratiot site.

Rock Ventures, another Gilbert business, has been in negotiations with the county to purchase the Gratiot site, along with other county-owned law-enforcement buildings downtown in a deal where the county would move to the Mound site.

Gilbert, upon hearing that the county was engaged in talks to continue building at Gratiot, said the move would "rank among the region's worse decisions of all time," though two of the county's current jail facilities are within walking distance.

"This critical land must be developed into uses that are consistent with a city that is on the rise and creating the environment to attract brain-economy companies and the kind of high-wage jobs that these businesses produce as well as residential and commercial projects that accompany this kind of growth," Gilbert said in a statement to the Free Press. "At the exact moment we finally have the momentum and scale to overcome decades of decline as well as the increasingly inaccurate image and perception of Detroit being a crime-ridden decaying city, it is unfathomable there is even a thought of continuing on with a project that would put a massive county jail at the foot of the entry to downtown."

In the midst of trying to decide where to build the jail, Wayne County still must contend with the fact that three current or former county officials associated with the project have been indicted on charges related to their roles in the construction process.

Still, Herb Strather, a longtime Detroit developer, said part of what has led to the success of the downtown renaissance is the ability to draw lawyers, judges and others who frequent the area because of their connection with the criminal justice system.

"That's what makes us an intellectual downtown," said Strather, who has closed more than $2 billion in real estate transactions in metro Detroit over the years. "You're going to take the lawyers and bond people ... and move them almost to a rural area? I would say no. Everybody's downtown for a reason. There's no infrastructure (at Mound) to support the judicial community. There's no restaurants, office buildings or hotels."

Peter Hammer, a professor at the Wayne State Law School and an expert in the field of economic development, said building at the downtown site is beneficial for the county because everything is already downtown — from the courthouse to access to the bail bondsmen and lawyers.

"The logic of putting it where it is, think of the efficiencies of having it there," said Hammer, director of the university's Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. "But we don't want to advertise it to people going to Tigers games, so we want to hide it (at Mound)."

From an economic standpoint, Hammer said, city and county officials should be looking at how building a larger jail — in a city that he said has been leveled by mass incarceration — is the route being taken, instead of formulating reform ideas to address the growing number of detainees.

"What people are missing is the symbolism of the jail, which also is an important civil rights issue," he said. "The City of Detroit is a wonderful case study of the effects of mass incarceration on the city and its economy. It also becomes a metaphor for the devastating effects … where the only creative answer is: 'Where are we going to build the things?'

"No one's talking reforms, and that would be far more rational."

Kinkead, 40, who has 16 years experience in architecture and urban design, said repurposing the site for multiple uses — retail, commercial and residential options — as well as engaging residents and potential consumers through attractive design would be much more beneficial to the area than a jail.

"It's a site that can and should generate jobs for Detroiters overall," he said. "It's important that the use that goes on at the site be dynamic and attractive and engage Gratiot in a way we haven't seen. It forms a bit of a gateway (to the downtown entertainment) there.

"Using it as a jail site is not the highest or best use of that site, period."

Contact Marlon A. Walker: 313-223-4531 or mwalker@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marlonawalker.

Wayne County proposals

Plan 1: Calls for completing the jail at Gratiot, creating a 1,976-bed facility and keeping the Hamtramck jail open to accommodate more people at a cost of $172.5 million, since $157 million has already been spent at the site and $43 million is left to use.

Plan 2: Calls for moving the jail to Mound and building 2,392 beds; building a courthouse at the site as well for $651 million, including the $157 million already spent on the Gratiot site.

Plan 3: Completing the jail on Gratiot, closing Hamtramck and outsourcing 400 detainees to other area agencies at the same cost of $172.5 million, since $157 million has already been spent at the site and $43 million is left to use.

Plan 4: Moving to Mound with 2,008 beds and building a courthouse at a cost of $630 million (including the $157 million already spent at Gratiot) and would include outsourcing 400 beds.