Demolition is underway to repurpose the former Madison Street Jail and during a ceremony, county leaders used a robot to demolish parts of the former jail. Once remodeled, the building located at 225 Madison will provide the County Attorney’s Office with 263,595 square feet of finished space next to Superior Court facilities.
“We spent several months evaluating how to best use this space,” said Chairman Denny Barney, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 1. “Right now, the County Attorney’s Office is spread out over several locations in downtown Phoenix. Now they can all be together, right next to the courts. Ultimately, this reuse will benefit the bottom line, and taxpayers.”
When attorney staff move out of their offices at 301 W. Jefferson, other county departments, currently in leased locations elsewhere, can move in.
The Madison Street Jail has been empty for more than 10 years. Since the building, finished in 1985, no longer complies with corrections standards, there were two options: tear down a good building at tremendous cost to the county or use it for another purpose. After a great deal of study, the county determined it can demolish the interior and convert it into a modern office building within the county campus. Re-purposing this building will reduce the number of buildings the county leases over time.
“This would have been a wasted asset,” said Joy Rich, Maricopa County Manager. “It would have cost nine million dollars to tear this building down, we would have disrupted downtown to do that, and we would have had the additional cost of building office space at this location.”
The total cost for re-purposing the Madison Street Jail is estimated to be between $60 and 65 million. The project is expected to be finished in late 2019 or early 2020.