Gilbert Gets Jail Site - New Criminal Justice Center to Built

**Tig3rzhark** · March-11-18, 10:11 AM

Originally Posted by eastland

The press release is misleading. The admin building for DDOT are not currently part of the project.

Yet when the news came out, the address for DDOT's admin offices was mentioned as the location of the new jail.

Is there any more information that you have that would state that the DDOT admin offices would remain in its location, or if not, where it would be relocated?

**Jason** · March-11-18, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by Tig3rzhark

Yet when the news came out, the address for DDOT's admin offices was mentioned as the location of the new jail.

Is there any more information that you have that would state that the DDOT admin offices would remain in its location, or if not, where it would be relocated?

That's because it's DDOT's property, the jail is being built on the back half of the property. The admin building is the black glass building directly on Warren, in front of the tan brick maintenance facility. If you look in the aerial rendering you can see the main DDOT buildings are undisturbed. The jail replaces a smaller warehouse and some sheds. https://goo.gl/maps/6ie3m16dGwH2

In the land swap, the city got the gigantic American Motors site. https://goo.gl/maps/usH15pYn7co You can see that this has a similar arrangement as the DDOT buildings, but it would cost a ton of money to renovate and is way too big for DDOT. Across the street from DDOT now is a DPS warehouse. So maybe DDOT, the DPS warehouse, and then the DPS school bus yards and other utilitarian things across the city could be consolidated at the American Motors site. But I don't think there's a reason for the city to go through the hassle/expense, and I don't think there's a reason for developers to want to build stuff that would be looming under the shadow of a prison and incinerator.

It seems like the DDOT site was chosen simply because the government owned land was easier to assemble, it's in an industrial district so there wouldn't be NIMBY opposition, or opportunity costs from alternative uses of the land, and it's still vaguely close to the core of the city.

**brizee** · March-27-19, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by brizee

Just a guess, but the incinerator is not long for this world.

Pricey lawyers and judges get garbage slime on their person and their cars...

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...ay/3287589002/

That was quicker than I thought.

With all the new residintial construction and proposals within half a mile there was no way this was surviving.

**Hypestyles** · March-31-19, 06:05 PM

.. still no timeline for construction to begin here?

**Gistok** · March-31-19, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

.. still no timeline for construction to begin here?

There is a serious lack of tradesmen available to do everything on the existing projects in Detroit. I imagine that the criminal justice complex will have to wait its' turn.

**Dexlin** · March-31-19, 07:42 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

.. still no timeline for construction to begin here?

You can't have a timeline for construction without an actual proposal. Nothing has formally been submitted for this one, and nothing will be until Gilbert is done getting Monroe Blocks going.

**ABetterDetroit** · March-31-19, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

There is a serious lack of tradesmen available to do everything on the existing projects in Detroit. I imagine that the criminal justice complex will have to wait its' turn.

With all due respect Gistok, the above is a Michigan Excuse if there ever was one.

Did Phoenix have the trades in the nineties at the same time that Atlanta, Florida, the Silicon Valley and the entire east coast was exploding? If the work is here and the money is good they will come from somewhere else just like they do in other places. God knows we have been the supplier of skilled trades to the rest of the country for a long time. Just because an economic boom has not happened in Detroit since WWII, that is not a good enough reason to believe it is not possible here again.

If the right conditions are created the growth will happen in our area just like other places in this country. We just have to compete and make changes of old archaic ways and level the field so Michigan gets in the game instead of sitting on the sidelines playing the poor victim state in the rust belt hit the hardest.

**Dexlin** · March-31-19, 10:32 PM

Just because an economic boom has not happened in Detroit since WWII, that is not a good enough reason to believe it is not possible here again.

I don't think he believes that or implied any such thing.

**Gistok** · April-01-19, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by ABetterDetroit

With all due respect Gistok, the above is a Michigan Excuse if there ever was one.

Did Phoenix have the trades in the nineties at the same time that Atlanta, Florida, the Silicon Valley and the entire east coast was exploding? If the work is here and the money is good they will come from somewhere else just like they do in other places. God knows we have been the supplier of skilled trades to the rest of the country for a long time. Just because an economic boom has not happened in Detroit since WWII, that is not a good enough reason to believe it is not possible here again.

If the right conditions are created the growth will happen in our area just like other places in this country. We just have to compete and make changes of old archaic ways and level the field so Michigan gets in the game instead of sitting on the sidelines playing the poor victim state in the rust belt hit the hardest.

I'll just let the problems speak for its self....

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/constr...-continue-2019

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/constr...labor-shortage

https://www.freep.com/story/money/20...it/1986685002/

With nearly $10 billion in construction going on in the next 5 years, a skilled labor shortage should be of no surprise. They're gonna have to pay up big time to hire required help from outside the region, especially with Detroit's cyclical jobs situation. People that left after the 2008 meltdown [[many losing their homes in the process), may not be so quick to return... knowing the cyclical nature of the Michigan business climate.

I have 2 friends who are construction business owners and have been trying for 2-3 years to add help... but to no avail. Anyone that is interested usually goes to the larger construction firms who have deeper wallets. And even though they're both willing to train new guys to work for them... the interest among potential employees wanes fast when it is discovered how hard building trades work can be... for the X-Box generation...