County to Lease Space During Detention Center Expansion

CREATED Feb. 6, 2013

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  • The major expansion of the Eastern Detention Center will move onto land that the county administration building currently sits on. So the county will have to lease office space in Indio for the district attorney, and other offices. Video by kmir6.com

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There are changes in the plans to build a new detention facility and county administration building in Indio.
To keep the 100 million dollar grant from the state to build the new detention center, the county has to stay on schedule.
It's a 250 to 300 million dollar project with a deadline of 2017.

The major expansion of the Eastern Detention Center will move onto land that the county administration building currently sits on.
So the county will have to lease office space in Indio for the district attorney, and other offices.
"We were planning on building a new building, moving them directly into it, and then building a jail, the timeline for that is not going to work, we are under pressure to have beds available and to have the construction of the jail done by 2017," said Riverside County Supervisor, John Benoit.
Supervisor Benoit says the extra cost of lease will not be a big burden on the county.
"Actually we've found some ways to save some money, and part of this process of moving forward even though we have to temporarily move people offsite, the timing will move forward and that will save some money," said Benoit.
Construction will begin by the end of the year on both buildings.
"It's very important, not just to our city but to the region, these are services that are needed, sorely needed for the whole Coachella Valley, expanding the current detention center is a vital need," said Indio city manager, Dan Martinez.
The expansion will take the detention facility from 350 to 1600 beds, and the project brings an economic boost.
"Also brings hundreds of new, better paying jobs in our community, people are going to reside in our community and frequent our businesses, and be part of this community, so we're very excited," said Martinez.
Demolition of the old county administration building will begin within months.
"By the end of this year, we'll have hundreds of people working construction jobs and the end of the process there's going to be about 350 additional professional jobs to manage the enlarged jail facility in addition to who have been the people who have been working in downtown already," said Benoit.
So the county is looking at properties to lease, to get this major expansion moving forward.
The county will show their latest plans for the detention center and administration building at the Indio city council meeting on the 20th.