DETROIT - Wayne County on Wednesday moved further toward to a proposed soccer stadium development deal with Dan Gilbert's Rock Ventures in place of its botched downtown jail project.

A Wayne County Commission committee voted to move forward to a Thursday full commission vote on a proposal for the Wayne County Land Bank to acquire a foreclosed lot at 5430 Riopelle, which is adjacent to the county's juvenile and family court buildings, near a new jail complex site proposed by Rock Ventures.

Cheryl V. Jordan, the Land Bank's executive director, said the plan is to convert the space into a county-owned parking lot for use with the justice complex, should the new jail development be approved.

The original jail project, initially planned to be built in Downtown Detroit for $220 million, started in 2011 and was halted in 2013 due to project cost overruns estimated to drive the price up to near $391 million.

Since that time, taxpayers have incurred an estimated $1.2 million per month for debt servicing, litigation and other costs, while the partially built jail has become an eyesore on Gratiot Avenue near I-75.

Rock Ventures is proposing the construction of a $520-million Wayne County justice complex away from downtown, near the site of the current juvenile detention center and courthouse at 1025 E. Forest, east of Midtown, across I-75.

Taxpayers would be on the hook for about $380 million of that cost under the most recent proposal. A previous plan would have capped the county's responsibility at $300, but included a smaller jail facility.

The deal also includes transferring the stalled jail site to Rock Ventures, which is planning a $1 billion commercial development to include a Major League Soccer stadium in partnership with Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores.

The competing option involves hiring Walsh Construction to finish the stalled jail in Downtown Detroit at a cost of $317.6 million -- $353 million including costs of renovating the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice courthouse and Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, which planners say is necessary.

A decision to move forward with one of the two options is expected to come before the Wayne County Commission by early December, said Evan's spokesman Jim Martinez.

Evans, when first presented with the soccer stadium proposal last year, initially signalled he was leaning toward finishing construction at the original site, but in July shifted in the direction of working out a deal with Gilbert's company.

In the meantime, the county agreed to pay a $500,000 stipend to Walsh Construction in order to keep their proposal alive, in case the Rock Ventures plan falls through.

Martinez said the money was necessary to let Walsh know the county was "serious" about the possibility of accepting its proposal.

Commissioner Diane Webb asked the county to provide a total of all costs incurred since Evans took office nearly three years ago.

"Time is money" and "it just seems so obvious that everybody's mind is made up on the administrative side to go with Rock, that, you know, they're willing to keep paying all these monies to keep negotiating with them," Webb said. " ... All I've heard from very beginning was that we were vetting (the two options) because we wanted to do what was in the best interest of the taxpayer ...

"There is no way in the world that the Rock Ventures project isn't going to cost us more ... and all this time that we're waiting and all these people that we're paying and all this time we're just kicking the can down the road."

July 28 Rock Ventures proposal recommendation:

Recommendation to accept Rock Ventures proposal, July 28, 2017 by Fergus Burns on Scribd

Evans' office also proposed extending and increasing a contract with Carter Goble Associates of Columbia, South Carolina from $59,440 to $173,680. Carter Goble Associates is offering detailed cost analysis of the two jail options.

The contact would be extended from Sept. 13 through Jan. 12.

Commissioner Burton Leland contrasted the Ilitch family's Olympia Entertainment quick construction of Little Caesar's Arena, which was also complicated and required massive land acquisition, to the stagnancy of the jail development.

"At this point, I just wonder if I'm going to have a vote on this in my lifetime," he said.

Martinez said Evans inherited a mess when he took office in 2015.

Construction of the jail had already been idle for nearly a year and a half, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office was investigating possible project fraud committed by members of predecessor Robert Ficano's administration; and the county was on the brink of bankruptcy, Martinez said.

"It wasn't like we could come in on day one, flip on a switch and build the jail," Martinez said. "You were going to have to borrow money to build the jail," and in order to do that, the county needed financial stability."

The county in 2015 requested a fiscal review from the state, which declared a financial emergency, leading to a consent agreement that forced retirement benefit reforms. The county escaped financial emergency status in 2016 and saw a credit rating boost earlier this year.