New Marion County jail could cost $575M – Indianapolis Star

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett has selected the site of the former Citizens Energy coke plant at 2950 Prospect St. for a new criminal justice center.(Photo: James Briggs / IndyStar)Buy Photo

Construction of Mayor Joe Hogsett's proposed criminal justice center could cost up to $575 million, according to figures released by the city.

Hogsett'scriminal justice task force on Tuesday recommended a four-building campus, includingan assessment and intervention facility, a consolidated county jail, a courts building and an office building. The campus is slated to be builtat the former Citizens Energy coke factory siteat 2950 Prospect St. on the east side.

The estimated construction price tag for Hogsett's plan ismore than $160 million higher than a similar proposal from former Mayor Greg Ballard. Ballard in 2014 called for a criminal justice center at the former General Motors stamping plant site that would have cost $408 million to build. Ballard's plan had an overall price of $1.75 billion thatincludedthe price ofinterest, maintenance and day-to-day operations.

Democrats on the City-County Council criticized Ballard's plan as unaffordable, and itdied in 2015. Joey Fox, executive director of the Marion County Republican Party, said the county will end up paying morefor a new jail because of rising interest rates.

"Once the mayor provides enough details, the taxpayers can do an honest analysis," Fox said. "There's a lack of transparency in the numbers he's providing because they're not an apples-to-apples comparison."

But Andy Mallon, corporation counsel for the city,emphasized that Hogsett's plan is still forming.

"We're at fundamentally different stages in the process," Mallon said. "We're talking about estimates. They got all the way down to bids. We anticipate, once we get this project out on the street and bid, it willbe a different project."

The latest proposal is more comprehensive than Ballard's, Mallon added. Hogsett's plan includes a 70 percent larger courthouse, including civil, criminal and juvenile courts, he said.

"They didn't have any sort of estimates for what it would cost to move the crime lab or coroner," Mallon said.

City-County Council President Maggie Lewis, a Democrat, said in a statement that the council is "continuing to examine our processes for managing our criminal justice system."

"I support the work being done by the task force and look forward to our discussions about their recommendations of how we finance and construct the new justice center," Lewis said. "There is still a lot of work to be done.This is a lengthy process, but I am confident that we will create a campus that will meet the needs of our community."

The Hogsett administration has yet to say how the county would pay for a new criminal justice center. The county is scheduled to release financing details by the end of March.

The task force estimatesa new criminal justice center would save county offices at least$35 million a year that could be used to pay for development and construction of the campus over 30 years.

Under Ballard, the county spent more than $16 million on studies and planning in an effort to move the countyjail out of Downtown. The county might reap at least some benefits from that spending. The Hogsett administration has retained HOK, an architecture and engineering firm that worked on the Ballard plan.

"HOK drafted the original (requests for proposals) for that project and gained a great deal of familiarity with project cost estimates, as well as space and other requirements of the project," the criminal justice task force said in a memo.

The construction estimate does notinclude an office building for the prosecutor or public defender, which eventuallycould be part of the campus. The price tag also excludes an estimated $74 million cost for "off-site renovation projects for other agencies," according to the memo.

Judges in the Marion County court system have yet to announce whether they would move their operations to the proposedcriminal justice center. Judges have until May 1 to decide whether they want to move from Downtown to theTwin Aireneighborhood.

Call IndyStar reporter James Briggs at (317) 444-6307. Follow him on Twitter:@JamesEBriggs.

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New Marion County jail could cost $575M - Indianapolis Star