It came to this starting more than a dozen years ago, when Wayne County, under then-Executive Robert Ficano, began building a new jail next door to the current criminal justice complex on a 7.2-acre site at Gratiot Avenue and I-375.

The goal? To consolidate existing facilities into a new, modern one at the eastern edge of downtown, to the consternation of many in the business community — including Gilbert — wanting it anywhere but the central business district.

It didn’t take long for that project to go sour, as cost overruns shackled construction and county officials were left scrambling for some way to salvage the half-built eyesore — or tear it down.

What was supposed to be a $220 million new jail ended up with a final projected cost of $391 million, and ultimately, under current Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, the county opted — after a lengthy debate and analysis — to wipe the site clean and start anew, with Gilbert’s team developing the new jail complex a couple of miles outside of downtown.

With the county on the verge of insolvency at the time, it was in no position to simply absorb the exploding costs. So it crafted an agreement whereby it would pay $380 million from about $50 million remaining bond proceeds from 2010 “fail jail” construction, new bonds and general fund revenue. The remainder of the cost was to be covered by a Gilbert affiliate of his Rock Ventures LLC. 

Bridge Detroit, citing a budget presentation from earlier this month, said that as of February, the project cost $670 million. The county was to pay $502.8 million, with Gilbert and Rock Ventures LLC covering $167.9 million plus other overruns. 

James Heath, corporation counsel for Wayne County, said on Wednesday that final costs were still being determined and a variety of factors need to be considered before a final number is determined. 

For example, in 2018, the Wayne County/Rock agreement called for Rock to get up to $30 million in parking revenue from lots surrounding the East Warren/I-75 site, with the county getting any revenue beyond $30 million. The county has since bought out Rock from that portion of the agreement. 

“We wanted to take control of the parking in that area, which would allow us to open up lots and do what we are doing now in providing parking at no cost to our employees,” Heath said. 

On March 18, Rock Ventures “turned over” the new East Warren/I-75 criminal justice complex to the county, with some punch list items — generally small things in the grand scheme of a half-billion-dollars worth of new construction — left to be completed. That triggered a six-month window in which the county needs to be out of its downtown facilities. 

Bringing us to today. Mostly. 

As it emerged that the Ficano-era project had become a boondoggle, developers and others — ranging from Gilbert to the owner of the Penobscot Building — floated proposals for the so-called “fail jail” property, ranging from a Major League Soccer stadium and sparkling new offices, residential and hotel skyscrapers to, later, a University of Michigan graduate school campus.

Obviously, none have come to fruition and the site still sits fallow, although Crain’s reported earlier this week that Gilbert envisions at least one future use for what is now being branded as an “innovation district” site to be a new five-story, 211,000-square-foot medical research hub.

What happens with the jail properties will involve a complex series of considerations and planning, experts and stakeholders said.

How will any new buildings be designed, and how will they complement the mix of architectural styles in the area, ranging from contemporary new construction such as The Exchange residential tower and Hollywood Casino at Greektown, from the low-slung buildings of the Greektown neighborhood to the storied Albert Kahn-designed former Detroit Police Department headquarters at 1300 Beaubien?

How will it interact with the removal of I-375, the one-mile span of below-grade freeway that’s going to be raised — in some fashion, with some configuration — to create a boulevard running through downtown, Lafayette Park and Greektown?

How will new development interact with public spaces and placemaking and infrastructure improvements set to begin in the near future? That’s a concern for Melanie Markowicz, executive director of the Greektown Neighborhood Partnership.

For example, just south of the jail properties, a four-block stretch of Monroe Street is expected to be redesigned starting next year to be more pedestrian friendly, incorporating wider sidewalks and other features thanks to a $20 million state budget appropriation last year.

“We’re coordinating with Bedrock on their properties around the jail area, primarily around St. Antoine, about streetscape improvements and cohesion within the district so we’re not doing different things with different feels, so that it feels like a cohesive neighborhood and district,” she said.

In addition to the actual jail properties the county owned, there’s also the former DPD headquarters — also owned by Bedrock after a deal with a Detroit bankruptcy creditor — that’s long been expected to be converted into hotel space at some point in the future, although what Gilbert envisions for it currently is not known. That building is flanked on two sides by county criminal justice properties.

“We can’t wait to see that become part of this mixed-use development that has labs and tech and innovation, but also areas for residential and park space,” Markowicz said.

Rainy Hamilton, principal-in-charge and president of Detroit-based architecture and planning firm Hamilton Anderson Associates, has his headquarters just across Gratiot from the “fail jail” site as well as the criminal justice complex properties.

He said wants the neighborhoods — Greektown, the Paradise Valley Cultural and Entertainment District area where HAA has its home base downtown — to be better connected, particularly from north of Gratiot where his office is to south of it, where the jail properties are.

Hospitality and entertainment uses on those sites make sense, Hamilton said. He also thinks it’s important to explore adaptive reuse of the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, a brutalist-style building that he concedes “most folks don’t have a positive feeling about.”

“It has some history,” he said. “Could it be adaptively reused, instead of demolished? I would want to look into that.”

Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, said the criminal justice complex site is a rare development and redevelopment opportunity for Bedrock, as well as the city. 

“It’s very seldom where a major urban city has an opportunity to do large-scale development planning,” Larson said. “Taking the time to get it right, thinking about the mix of uses, mix of incomes and ultimately the mix of population is going to be critical. These are big projects and they hold a lot of future opportunity and possibility.”