Wayne County Executive Warren Evans said Tuesday that businessman Dan Gilbert's criminal justice complex proposal has to "get better" if he's going to win approval of county officials to abandon plans to finish the long-delayed downtown jail project.

In his annual State of the County address, Evans said Wayne County remains closer to a deal with Chicago-based Walsh Construction to finish the jail on Gratiot Avenue than with Gilbert's Rock Ventures to move the jail, county courthouse and juvenile detention center to county-owned land on East Forest Avenue.

"The county is making good progress with Walsh toward finishing Gratiot. The Rock proposal is going to have to get better and move faster," Evans said during an hourlong address to an invitation-only crowd of 700 people at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn.

Evans suggested that Gilbert's proposal to build the county a $420 million jail, county courthouse and juvenile detention on Forest Avenue east of I-75 may not be as fast of a solution to the county's jail needs as restarting the Gratiot Avenue project, which has sat idle since the summer of 2013.

"At the end of day, Dan Gilbert may have good intentions and be willing to adequately fund the three new buildings the county will need if we move to an alternative site," Evans said. "But the question remains: At the end of which day?”

Gilbert's Rock Ventures has offered to build the county the criminal justice complex for $300 million — roughly the cost of finishing the Gratiot jail — in exchange for the entire Gratiot site, the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, two old county jails and the existing juvenile detention center.

"We respect County Executive Warren Evans' sense of urgency and have been working diligently with his team to ensure our proposal is a win-win for all stakeholders," Rock Ventures Principal Matt Cullen said Wednesday in a statement.

Gilbert, the Quicken Loans mortgage mogul turned Detroit real estate magnate, wants to build a $1 billion Major League Soccer stadium and mixed-use development with three 18- to 28-story towers for office, residential and hotel space. Gilbert, who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, has partnered with Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores to land an MLS franchise for Detroit.

The Evans administration has hired consultants to evaluate the Rock Ventures proposal, while Walsh Construction is expected to submit a plan for completing the Gratiot Avenue jail by May.

"Rock has a lot of work to do to meet our timetable," Evans said. "This isn’t posturing, or hyperbole, and it’s not anti-soccer, it’s just where we are today."

Evans, a former county sheriff, said Wayne County "desperately needs a new jail."

The 2,000-bed jail project on Gratiot was designed to consolidate Wayne County's three jails in Hamtramck and downtown Detroit under one roof, creating operating cost efficiencies for the sheriff's department. The county's Division 2 jail at 520 Gratiot Ave. was built in 1900, while another small jail around the corner at 580 Clinton St. was built in 1981.

Gilbert's proposed 1,600-bed jail calls for an unspecified "operational savings credit" for those savings and says Rock Ventures will add an extra 400 beds to the design for an extra $43 million.

"I recognize the present condition of our jails and how they are not suitable for inmates, employees and visiting families," Evans said. "For our county to thrive, we need a fully functioning county jail and criminal justice facilities. I intend to see that through to completion."

The Rock Ventures proposal said a new criminal justice complex on East Forest Avenue could be constructed by March 2020.

Even if Rock Ventures can win approval from the Evans administration, the plan would have to get past the Wayne County Commission, where some commissioners have expressed skepticism toward Gilbert's proposal.

"I just want the jail built right where it is," Commissioner Irma Clark-Coleman, D-Detroit, said after Evans' speech. "We have wasted too long and too many of the taxpayers' dollars."