DETROIT – Dan Gilbert and Rock Ventures released study results Tuesday that claim the soccer stadium development plan proposed to Wayne County would bring a $2 billion impact to Downtown Detroit.
The question is whether the county buys the businessman's plan.
Rock Ventures commissioned a study that heavily tips the scale toward the benefits of having a soccer stadium downtown, as opposed to moving forward with the currently stalled jail on Gratiot Avenue.
The deal Gilbert offered to the county for the land on the failed Wayne County Jail site remains on the table, and the latest economic impact study points to the offer benefiting Wayne County and taxpayers. But some commissioners are not swayed by the study.
Each month the jail site sits, taxpayers are paying just over $1 million.
"It's not a good solution for the taxpayers of Wayne County," Wayne County Commissioner Raymond Basham said. "There is no good solution. We've got to finish what we started."
Does the county continue to build on the same 15 acres on Gratoit Avenue across from the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice or take the offer from Gilbert? The offer would allow Gilbert to build a new major league soccer stadium on the Gratiot land, and Rock Ventures would build a new adult and juvenile detention center blocks away.
"You have a phenomenal private sector commitment here that's going to help change the landscape of downtown," Mark Ronsentraub said.
Ronsentraub, of the University of Michigan, spent six months studying the economic benefits. The study determined more than 32,000 jobs would come from construction, and $2.3 billion would be generated in cost. He found more than 2,100 permanent jobs would come.
"The taxpayers won't have any other responsibility other than what they committed to," Ronsentraub said.
"There is no win-win for the taxpayers," Basham said.
Basham questioned the study's validity.
"The problem is a study done by somebody who knows what their interest was or if they're biased," Basham said.
Basham believes Gilbert's offer isn't as cut and dried as the study suggests.
"I'm all for working with Mr. Gilbert, but there's another location they can put that soccer stadium," Basham said.