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BOCC Picks Design For New Escambia County Jail
August 11, 2017
The Escambia County Commission has picked a design for the new 720-bed Escambia County Jail and narrowed down the price tag.
Commissioners unanimously selected the bid submitted by Whitesell-Green and Caddell for $128.6 million, plus $5.8 million for upgrades. A second bid was submitted by W.G. Yates and Sons Construction $129.7 million for the basic design, plus $7.9 million for optional upgrades.
The board also voted to authorize staff and the selected design-build entity to utilize Owner Direct Purchases. This is a method whereby the county acts as the pass-through agency for a contractor on subcontracts or other agreements to purchase material. This will allow the county to purchase items associated with this project tax free at an estimated $2 million to $3 million savings.
With additional prep work, the total cost for the facility is expected to be about $114.8 million to replace the county’s detention center that exploded in 2014. There were two people killed and nearly 200 were injured.
The selection was made at a Committee of the Whole meeting Thursday, so the commission will be required to vote officially at the next regular commission meeting.
The Whitesell-Green/Caddell Joint Venture is a partnership of Whitesell-Green of Pensacola and Caddell Construction of Montgomery, AL. Company officials told the commission that they place to use as many local subcontractors as possible.
The new jail will be constructed at the site of the McDonald Shopping Center on the southeast corner of Fairfield Drive and Pace Boulevard, adjacent to the current 1980’s jail. The two facilities will be connected.
Construction could begin as early as January with completion in late 2019.
Comments
18 Responses to “BOCC Picks Design For New Escambia County Jail”
Better start making plans to renovate the old jail. We are going to need the space for more criminals.
800 at Gray Skull + 750 be about 1550 beds.
I agree does need to be too nice but I don’t think I want to go there no matter how nice it is.
Fantastic. After completion…fill it up with undesireables, meth heads, thieves, child molesters, murders, and other low lives.
keep working folks ! somebody has to . this is so much a waste of money . still don’t under stand why the old jail couldn’t be repaired .
I think it would be a lot cheaper to purchase a bunch of shipping containers and stack them on top of each other and then put a electrified barbed wire fence around all of it and some pitbulls.
Eliminate the expensive architectural garnishes. It’s a jail, not a Holiday Inn Express. Use the savings to expand capacity. A full jail should never be an excuse for a smaller bail. With all the thieves, burglars, and child molesters reported in these very pages, it is clear it needs to be bigger.
Nice, They can build a nice place for criminals but yet the homeless and low income folks have substandard living conditions.
I guess their tv’s are in the room’s!!!!!!!!!!!! Next we need to make visitation conjugal. We could also give them weekend passes. Next we can take them to chili’s, Ryan’s, golden corral’ ETC. WE NEED TO MAKE THE JAIL LARGE ENOUGH FOR ABOUT 2,000, FOR THE SAME PRICE.
Why are we the taxpayers building a jail that is to small to house the inmates we have now not even considering the number we will have fifteen years from now three years to plan for a future disaster and this is what we get ridiculous
128.6 million to house low lifers? This country is definitely upside down in its way of thinking. The condos on the beach don’t look this good.
@ Jason
Heard some time ago that at least one of “OUR” Board of County Commissioners is of the opinion that if we have a smaller (inadequately smaller) jail then there will be less crime in Escambia County. To me that’s just a dumb thought.
A comparison could be if the BoCC got less money in their paycheck they’d do a better job.
Good points here because “OUR” jail – if larger – could rent out space for Federal prisoners and prisoners from other Fla Counties as we are doing in Walton County. BUT it won’t have enough bed space or meet other regulations for increased prisoner capacity.
Keep in mind too that the ACLU and other rights groups will be putting in their two cents worth and extracting thousands of taxpayer dollars to try and meet impossible demands.
No matter what, this is the Only Affordable Housing in Pensacola – Affordable for the inmates and High Rent for the taxpayers, that is US.
i said it before and i will say it again why should criminals get living conditions than our military put them in tents and feed them M R E s
I would prefer to see a tent city type like they used in Mariacopa County in AZ. Put that is not politically correct I guess. It is nice to see that they will be using local contractors to help build this. Maybe that will help keep some employed and out of trouble. On a personal note, glad to see some of my cousins will have a new place to stay.
Spending ~$134,000,000 on local criminals. Might have been a bit cheaper to have left the 10 commandments posted in schools.
Just sayin’.
no need to make it bigger. Just stack another bunk in with the other inmates and let them sleep closer. It’s PRISON, not a vacation wonderland. Maybe if they made it a little more miserable(no AC, powdered eggs and other nasty food and being required to work while you’re incarcerated)) some of these fools wouldn’t enjoy being there so much. I mean, with all the repeat offenders they must really like it there, right? When in prison you should have no rights. You violated someone else’s rights to get there so why do you deserve anything better? The bleeding heart ACLU can be thanked for this weak correctional system.
Hopefully this is a modular type design that can have more stories or levels added as needed. Even if it was made easy to get a free college education and learn a trade that paid well, there would still be those that felt they had to break the law to make a living. So, corrections will always be a burgeoning industry. Sad.
Well, what a fancy place it seems to put convicts , and of course we must have upgrades. Lol . A little humor. Does seem a bit fancy. Can we get a better deal or is there a reason or reasons for these deals.
This proposed 720-bed facility isnt large enough to accommodate those currently incarcerated in the County Jail. How the heck do the Commissioners expect to bring back the 200+ inmates from Walton County? This new facility needed to be at least 1200 to 1400 beds and expandable to up to 2000 inmates for future needs.