DETROIT (WWJ) -- It appears the the old Wayne County Jail building in Downtown Detroit is about to come down.
The City of Detroit issued a demolition permit this month for the vacant jail on Clinton St. near Gratiot — build in the 1920 — and WWJ's Charlie Langton reports preliminary work for the teardown is underway.
According to the Detroit Free Press, there was a work crew at the site last Thursday, and a loud banging could be heard.
The building is now owned by Bedrock, Dan Gilbert's organization. It's not year clear exactly what Bedrock will do with the property. Bedrock also owns the former Detroit Police Department headquarters building on Beaubien.
Inmates were moved into the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center just over a year ago, in late summer 2024. Some history: This was after county officials in 2017 announced that a 2,000-bed jail that sat half-finished on Gratiot Ave. near Greektown, famously dubbed "the fail jail", would not be completed. Construction on that facility stopped in June of 2013 because the project was wildly over budget, with cost overruns totaling more than $90 million.