“They have not given us a proposal,” Evans said Tuesday during the Big Four panel discussion at a Detroit Economic Club meeting at Cobo Center in Detroit.

Chicago-based Walsh Construction was the only company that responded to Wayne County’s September request for qualified firms to bid on completing the 2,000-bed jail at Gratiot and I-375 on the edge of downtown.

Evans said the county will issue an RFP to Walsh Construction for finishing the jail “in the next few weeks.”

“I’m not sure just when,” Evans said of timing of the RFP. “When we give them the RFP, we won’t be entertaining any additional offers.”

Started under former Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano, the new county jail was supposed to cost $200 million. But construction was halted in the summer of 2013 after $151 million was spent and the final price tag was expected to be $391 million. The Wayne County Commission has approved $300 million in bonds for the project.

Evans said resolving the future of Wayne County’s consolidated jails is one his top priorities this year. "Getting that deal done would be the biggest albatross I could get off my neck,” Evans said.

Gilbert and Gores have publicly proposed building a $1 billion mixed-use development at the site anchored by an MLS stadium and 18- to 28-story high-rise towers with office, hotel and residential space.

A representative for Gilbert’s real estate company could not be immediately reached Tuesday afternoon for comment.

Evans, a former sheriff who previously ran the county’s jails, has said if the county sells the jail site for redevelopment, it needs to make up losses on the failed construction project.

Gilbert said in November that his company had hired a consultant to studying the cost of building the jail and other criminal justice facilities at a different site.

Evans shared the stage Tuesday with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel.

Duggan said the decision about what to do with the jail site rests with Evans.

“He knows more than anybody about how (the jail) should be sited and where it should be built,” Duggan said of Evans. “And I’m incredibly confident he’s going to make the right decision.”

Duggan, a soccer enthusiast, expressed interest in attracting an MLS franchisee to the city, even if it can’t be anchored at the jail site.

“It may not be the jail site, but I’m not leaving until there’s five” major sports teams downtown, Duggan said.