One jail down, one more to go.
Early demolition work is underway on the old Wayne County Division 1 jail near downtown Detroit’s Greektown, also known as the Andrew C. Baird Detention Facility.
The 13-story jail at 570 Clinton St. opened in 1984 and closed in 2024, when inmates moved to the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center off Interstate 75 near East Ferry Street.
It is near the site of the county’s former Division 2 jail, 525 Clinton St., which has been undergoing demolition since the fall and is now just a pile of rubble. That jail building dated to the late 1920s and included a 1960s annex.
The demolitions were ordered by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock real estate firm.
Bedrock acquired the two jails from Wayne County as part of a complex 2018 deal involving a four-building property bundle. (The other two buildings were the county’s since-demolished juvenile detention facility at 1326 St. Antoine St. and the still-standing Frank Murphy Hall of Justice at 1441 St. Antoine.)
Under the deal, Gilbert also committed to building the county’s new Criminal Justice Center. Additionally, Gilbert gained ownership of the country’s half-built “fail jail” site along Gratiot — across from the two jails — in exchange for a $21.3 million payment to the county.
The city of Detroit issued a demolition permit for the Division 1 jail on Jan. 21 with Adamo as the contractor.
Bedrock has yet to announce its precise plans for the jail sites once all the rubble is clear, or the next steps for the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.
A Bedrock spokesperson said on Friday, Feb. 6, that they are demolishing the jails to prepare for development on Bedrock’s nearby Gratiot site with the future Life Sciences Building, and that more updates will come.
Bedrock also owns the former Detroit police headquarters building — 1300 Beaubien — that is sandwiched between the two jail sites.
The Division 1 jail had its grand opening in July 1984. Its early nickname was the “Ren Pen” because some thought that the tall, slab-sided structure looked more like an office building than a jail. The jail was named after former Wayne County Sheriff Andrew Baird, who died as sheriff at age 83 in 1963 after serving almost continuously since 1940.
The jail cost $54 million and was financed by a half-mill property tax increase. The county’s initial plan for the jail was highly controversial among Greektown merchants, who worried about the jail detracting from their neighborhood’s ethnic charm. But the merchants ultimately agreed to go along once the location was moved and an administration office was added as a buffer.
The county’s former “fail jail” site along Gratiot saw some site preparation work last year and Bedrock is expected to break ground there this spring on its Life Sciences Building.
That two-story and 90,000-square-foot building at 1326 St. Antoine is to house on its first floor a joint venture between Grand Rapids-based BAMF Health and Detroit-based Henry Ford Health that would be a “Comprehensive Theranostics Center.” The center would feature a molecular imaging clinic, molecular therapy clinic and a commercial radiopharmacy for patient care and clinical research, according to a news release.
(This story has been updated to include new information.)
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Demolition work begins on Gilbert’s second old Wayne Co. jail building
Reporting by JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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