But Evans emphasized his focus is on getting the criminal justice complex built by 2022.

"I am one that wants to get one deal done before we talk about another one," Evans told Crain's. "... But I wouldn't be surprised if we did other business."

Officials at Bedrock LLC, the real estate arm of Gilbert's companies, declined to weigh in on Evans' speculation about potential future business deals.

"As has been our long-standing policy, Bedrock and its affiliates will not comment on rumors or speculation of potential business deals that may or may not be accurate," Bedrock spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said in a statement.

Wayne County spent $33.5 million in 2007 on the Guardian Building in a deal that included the First Street Parking Garage and the one-time four-story Detroit Savings and Loan Building at 511 Woodward Ave. that hugs the eastern wall of the Guardian. The county paid Detroit-based Sterling Group about $14.5 million for the Guardian Building alone.

Wayne County is currently in the process of trying to sell the 30,000-square-foot glass-covered bank building for $4.65 million to Zaid Elia of Birmingham-based Elia Group.

Sale of the bank building is pending before the Wayne County Commission. The county paid $2 million for the bank building in 2007 and has an outstanding bond balance of $2 million, Evans spokesman Jim Martinez said.

In 2007, the Wayne County Commission issued $60 million in bonds to purchase and renovate the Guardian Building. As of last November, Wayne County owed $46 million on those bonds, Martinez said.

While the Guardian Building is viewed as an Art Deco architectural masterpiece, it's not a very accessible building to the general public given its location at Griswold and Congress streets in downtown Detroit's financial district.

"It is not user-friendly for people who have to do business (with the county)," Evans said. "I mean, it's a great building."

Selling the Guardian Building would prompt the need to move the county's headquarters elsewhere in Detroit.

"The other side of the issue is the county seat, and now where else could you afford to go in Detroit?" Evans said.

In 2015, the Bloomfield Hills-based turnaround firm O'Keefe LLC suggested in a pro-bono report that Wayne County move its offices to a consolidated campus in the New Center area.

"The New Center area is ripe for such a move," O'Keefe wrote in its report. "It is still located in the county's historic home of Detroit. It is easily accessible from all of the major freeways, It is much less congested than the Central Business District. And it adds to the growing government center currently anchored by the State of Michigan in the Cadillac Tower."

With the jail project being the county's main facilities priority, Evans suggested selling and moving the county's offices could still be years away.

"It'd be a tough nut to crack," Evans said. "But it's not one I'd be scared to mess with at the appropriate time."