After nearly a decade of cost overruns and stagnancy, private developers, along with University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel and local politicians unveiled a more hopeful, shinier development plan Wednesday, Oct. 30: A $300 million, 190,000-square-foot University of Michigan center for high-tech pursuits, such as artificial intelligence, cyber-security and mobility, among other fields.
The announcement marks the most significant investment by UM in Detroit, where the college was founded in 1817, since it relocated to Ann Arbor in 1837.
A donation from Stephen M. Ross, a New York developer, University of Michigan benefactor, alumnus and Detroit native, is credited for making the development possible.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said the school will anchor what’s been dubbed the Detroit Center for Innovation, a multi-building complex to include a business incubator, hotel, student housing, a conference hall and event space on 14 acres where a new Wayne County Jail was once planned on Gratiot Avenue, as well as the land where the Wayne County courthouse, an existing jail and the former Detroit police headquarters currently stand.
The land is owned by Quicken founder Dan Gilbert, who purchased it from Wayne County in 2018.
The land’s transformation from an imagined jail site to an academic beacon has been a long and expensive one, expected to cost taxpayers cumulatively about $600 million.
Original estimates to build the failed jail were $300 million, but the project was halted in 2013, after construction began and the price tag had ballooned by tens of millions.
For the next six years, the hulking concrete innards and steal beams that were to become the jail stood dormant, costing taxpayers an estimated $1.2 million a month in debt financing, security and other related fees.
The county spent more than $150 million on the jail that would never open. It was demolished in early 2019.
The Timeline:
2010: The Wayne County Commission secures $300 million by selling bonds for construction of a proposed jail on Gratiot Avenue in Downtown Detroit.September 2011: Under former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano’s administration, construction begins.
June 2013: After spending nearly $121 million on a half-built jail, cost overruns are projected to bring the total cost to $390 million. Construction is halted.
August 2013: Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy asks the Wayne County auditor general to withhold his report dissecting how the jail costs grew so significantly and who knew what and when. Worthy announces her office is conducting its own criminal investigation.
October 2013: County says jail site development proposal from Dan Gilbert and his companies is the best option. It would allow Gilbert to develop the downtown location and proposed moving the new jail and court complex north of downtown.
November 2013: Warren Evans is elected as Wayne County executive. He says the plan is to proceed with the stalled jail project downtown, saying other options would be too costly.
September 2014: Three Wayne County employees are charged with willful neglect of duty in connection with the jail cost overrun, although they are never convicted of any crimes.
February 2017: Executive Warren Evans maintains that Dan Gilbert’s proposal, which includes a proposed soccer stadium at the jail site, is still too costly and indicates the new jail is likely to remain in downtown Detroit.
Dec. 1, 2017: The county announces it will not proceed with downtown jail and is instead entertaining a $520 million proposal from Dan Gilbert to build a new criminal justice complex for the county. As part of the deal, he’d acquire the downtown property, where he hoped to build a professional soccer stadium in partnership with Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores.
March 2018: Wayne County and Dan Gilbert strike a deal. Gilbert will acquire the former jail site and other adjacent properties, including the courthouse, jail and former Detroit police headquarters. In exchange, he will fund any costs in excess of $380 million, the amount Wayne County agreed to pay, for a new criminal justice complex and jail located east of Detroit Midtown and Interstate 75.
June 2018: Dan Gilbert begins preparing for demolition of unfinished jail in downtown Detroit.
March 2019: Demolition of the unfinished jail is complete.
Oct. 30, 2019: Plans for the Detroit Center for Innovation, including a $300 million University of Michigan technology campus, are revealed.
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