Rock Ventures LLC, the investment firm through which Quicken Loans’ founder Dan Gilbert has been revitalizing Detroit’s business and real estate landscape, wants to develop a $1 billion commercial project that would include a 23,000-seat Major League soccer stadium in downtown Detroit, in partnership with Platinum Equity’s Tom Gores, who owns the Detroit Pistons NBA franchise.
To get the land it covets for this project, Rock Ventures wants take ownership of the Wayne County jail site on Gratiot Avenue. In exchange for that transfer, Rock Ventures has offered to spend $120 million of its own money to construct a new $420 million consolidated criminal justice center on a separate site.
Rock Ventures is also asking the county for an “operational savings credit” to cover the projected efficiencies realized on the new site, for which the investment firm would assume all costs and financial risks.
MLive.com reports that the proposed site for this criminal justice center would be located about 1.5 miles from the existing jail site, at East Forest Avenue east of Interstate 75. The proposed complex would include a 1,632-bed adult facility and a 160-bed juvenile detention center, and a new criminal courthouse with 29 courtrooms. Nearly 400 beds could be added to the jail if the county kicks in another $40 million.
According to the Detroit News, Rock Ventures’ submitted its proposal—developed with AEC firms HOK and Barton Malow—just days before the county’s Feb. 10 deadline to move ahead with efforts to restart construction on the abandoned Gratiot jail site. However, only one firm, Chicago-based Walsh Construction, had responded to the county’s request for proposals.
Gilbert has been pursuing the Gratiot Avenue site for more than three years. His original plans were to turn the site into an entertainment complex that would create 5,500 jobs.
Construction of the 2,000-cell jail on the Gratiot Avenue site—for which the county has already spent about $150 million—halted half finished in June 2013 after revelations of potentially tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns. Litigation initiated by the Detroit Free Press forced the county to release an August 2013 draft report of an audit—which had been kept from county commissioners and members of the Wayne County Building Authority— that projected the new jail would run at least $41 million over its $300 million budget. The draft report showed that county officials had known about the potential overruns since 2011.
If the county accepts Rock Ventures’ proposal, the cost of the new soccer stadium, along with a hotel, office buildings and a residential tower, is estimated in the $225 million to $250 million range.
Related Stories
| Sep 30, 2011
Design your own floor program
Program allows users to choose from a variety of flooring and line accent colors to create unique floor designs to complement any athletic facility.
| Sep 16, 2011
Largest solar installation completed at Redskins' football stadium
On game days, solar power can provide up to 20% of FedExField’s power.
| Sep 12, 2011
First phase of plan to revitalize Florida's Hialeah Park announced
This is the first project of a master plan developed to revive the historic racetrack.
| May 25, 2011
Olympic site spurs green building movement in UK
London's environmentally friendly 2012 Olympic venues are fuelling a green building movement in Britain.
| Apr 11, 2011
Wind turbines to generate power for new UNT football stadium
The University of North Texas has received a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to install three wind turbines that will feed the electrical grid and provide power to UNT’s new football stadium.
| Apr 5, 2011
U.S. sports industry leads charge in meeting environmental challenges
The U.S. sports industry generates $414 billion annually. The amount of energy being consumed is not often thought of by fans when heading to the stadium or ballpark, but these stadiums, parks, and arenas use massive quantities of energy. Now sports leagues in North America are making a play to curb the waste and score environmental gains.
| Mar 25, 2011
Qatar World Cup may feature carbon-fiber ‘clouds’
Engineers at Qatar University’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering are busy developing what they believe could act as artificial “clouds,” man-made saucer-type structures suspended over a given soccer stadium, working to shield tens of thousands of spectators from suffocating summer temperatures that regularly top 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
| Mar 11, 2011
University of Oregon scores with new $227 million basketball arena
The University of Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena opened January 13 with a men’s basketball game against USC where the Ducks beat the Trojans, 68-62. The $227 million arena, which replaces the school’s 84-year-old McArthur Court, has a seating bowl pitched at 36 degrees to replicate the close-to-the-action feel of the smaller arena it replaced, although this new one accommodates 12,364 fans.
