The latest budget estimate for the new Cuyahoga County jail in Garfield Heights is nearly $900 million, up from an estimated $750 million at the end of 2023.
“Needless to say, we're still at an early stage of design and things are going to occur, both during design and construction and the owner has to maintain an effective contingency,” said Jeff Appelbaum, the consultant who has overseen planning for the new jail on behalf of the county since 2019. “We hope we can reduce it at some point in time.”
The current timeline calls for the county to have issued the bonds necessary to finance the build by early 2026 with construction to begin that August. It’s expected to take three or three-and-a-half years to build the 852,000-square-foot, 1,886-bed facility, along with a 20,000-square-foot professional development building for the sheriff’s department.
Appelbaum told council the budget also accounts for cost escalation over the next five years.
“Hopefully, our projections are wrong,” Appelbaum said. “Hopefully, we go through a period of time when we have very minimal inflation. That has not been our history in the past, so we're using something that's a little conservative.”
The estimate includes about $785 million in design and building costs and more than $100 million projected for county costs, like permits and insurance coverage.
Design plans envision a three-story jail with 52 housing units where detainees can eat, receive medical care and have non-contact visits without ever leaving their units. There are 24 different categories of housing, allowing for the separation of detainees based on whether they have chronic or acute mental health needs, if they need to detox and their security level — distinctions that are not always used at the current jail.
In late 2023, the county approved a 40-year extension of a 0.25% sales tax to fund construction of the facility. County council is expected to begin considering a construction price tag, what’s known as the “guaranteed maximum price,” early next year before construction starts.
