The state has finalized the sale of a portion of the former Detroit House of Corrections site in Plymouth Township to a local developer. 

Southfield-based Redico LLC, run by Dale Watchowski, paid $2.4 million for about 87 acres of the old prison facility property to the Michigan State Land Bank Authority in a deal that closed in late April, a state spokesperson said. Redico has had a development and sales agreement with the state since 2018 for the property. 

A new 160,000-square-foot Meijer Inc. supercenter on about 21.5 acres of the site, located in Plymouth Township near Five Mile and Beck roads, is in development. Redico and Meijer sued Plymouth Township last year after the township denied the store’s construction, but a consent judgement earlier this year allowed it to move forward. 

Watchowski said Friday afternoon that the remaining 65.5 or so acres of the site, dubbed the V-Tech area, is expected to include research and technology users coming in future build-to-suit projects. 

The Meijer “provided us the impetus to kick off this development,” Watchowski said, adding that Meijer’s 21.5 acres were subsequently sold to the Walker-based retail giant. “We have three (research and technology) users we are currently in very active negotiations with.” 

Last year, the state awarded a $10 million earmark for the reconstruction and widening of Five Mile in that area, plus adding new traffic signals.

In a press release, township Supervisor Kurt Heise said the development will “clean up a long-contaminated and neglected site, create jobs, and improve our tax base.”

The broader former DeHoCo development area, now branded the Michigan International Technology Center, consists of 800 acres across 15 different chunks of land in Plymouth and Northville townships north and south of Five Mile spanning between Napier Road to the west to just west of Beck to the east.Plans to relocate the Northville Downs racetrack to the Plymouth Township portion of the site were scrapped earlier this year after township officials broke off negotiations.