On track for completion in early 2027, the Macomb County Central Intake and Assessment Center (CIAC) in Mount Clemens, Michigan, will integrate medical and behavioral health services to create a new national model for corrections and public safety.
The $228 million project will replace portions of the county’s outdated jail structure with a new corrections intake facility equipped to provide housing plus medical, mental health, and substance abuse treatment services for both men and women.
PARTNERS in Architecture is the architect of record for the project, with project design collaboration from STV. Granger Construction serves as the construction manager.
Throughout the planning and construction process, Granger team members have been working closely with the facility’s architecture and design teams and with representatives from Macomb County Facilities and Operations, the project owner. The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office has also collaborated closely on the project.
“We have formal, owner-architect-contractor meetings every other week,” said Dan German of Granger Construction, the CIAC’s Senior Project Manager. “But I tend to see the representative from Macomb County Facilities and Operations every other day, or even sometimes daily. The county’s been very proactive and excited about this project.”
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The new, 162,000-square-foot Macomb County CIAC will offer newly incarcerated inmates an opportunity to receive prompt and comprehensive assessment and treatment for mental health or substance abuse challenges that may serve as a root cause of their crimes.
“The goal is to try to reduce repeat criminal offenses by treating the underlying issues these inmates may be dealing with,” German said.
Input from the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office — from ways to improve inmate living conditions to strategies to ease logistical management duties for onsite staff — has factored heavily into the building design.
“The county’s been great to work with,” German said. “They want this project to be successful, just like we do.”
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Funded with support from $128 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, plus $60 million in county funds and $40 million in state funding, the CIAC will add roughly 280 cell beds to bring the jail system’s overall capacity to roughly 1,200 inmates. A corridor will connect the new facility to the existing jail.
Designed in the shape of an X to maximize interior day lighting, the CIAC’s four distinct wings allow for segregation of female and male inmates and provide dedicated corridors for various administrative tasks and support services.
Floors two through four include holding cells, intake and transitional housing, day rooms, fresh air courts, detox, medical isolation, and support areas, while the first floor features a medical wing that includes a dialysis suite, mental health evaluation rooms, medical exam rooms, and a dental suite. Other portions of the first floor cater to facility operations, including sections allocated to inmate booking and pretrial services, staff offices, a staff break room, and spaces for inmate programming and education.
Granger teams are constructing the facility’s exterior facade using insulated, precast concrete panels that have been lightly sandblasted. Glazed spandrel glass panels will give the illusion of a symmetrical flow of windows across the entire exterior, even in areas where security concerns prohibited the placement of true windows.
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“The county did not want the building to look institutional,” German said. “They did not want it to look like a traditional jail.”
Before construction could begin on the new CIAC, Granger Construction teams had to demolish four portions of the main, 1950s-era existing jail that had become obsolete due to age, HVAC system disrepair, and/or building code changes.
Demolition on the existing jail began with the removal of the Annex Building in August 2024. Once that building was cleared away, Granger teams were able to break ground on the new facility in September 2024.
To date, Granger crews have fully completed installation of the new CIAC building’s concrete footings, foundations, and structural steel. As of early December 2025, roughly 35 percent of the building’s exterior precast panels had been installed. The team began installing the rest of the panels in January 2026.
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Removal of three other jail facilities earmarked for demolition has continued simultaneously alongside the new construction. Granger teams completed their demolition and removal of the maximum-security building and adjacent D-Block in October and November 2025, respectively. The Rehabilitation Building, the final building slated for removal, will be demolished in summer 2026.
In all, Granger Construction has been charged with the removal of roughly 78,000 square feet of the existing Macomb County Jail — all without disrupting ongoing, day-to-day operations in portions of the facility that remain in use.
In addition to the challenges of managing both construction and deconstruction alongside a working jail, Granger teams also had to unexpectedly tackle another operational hurdle: rerouting utilities from a nearby powerhouse to the new CIAC site.
“The utilities work wasn’t part of our original scope of work, but it got rolled into the job,” German said. “We had to run roughly 1,600 feet of duct bank from the powerhouse to the new CIAC. We had to cut right across the build site, so the logistics of navigating that became pretty complicated.”
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Granger teams closely coordinated with their trade partners to plan the routing of deliveries and workers around the utility line dig site so that construction could stay on schedule, German said.
While the CIAC marks Granger Construction’s first project with Macomb County, Michigan, working in the corrections space is not new for the company. In fact, the construction of jails and justice facilities represents one of Granger Construction’s core specialties.
Drawing on their correctional system expertise, the Granger team has worked closely with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office staff to fine-tune security features for the new CIAC — from its cell construction materials to its electronics and plumbing systems.
The new facility will incorporate detention steel wall panels, rather than traditional concrete blocks, for its cell walls. Compared to concrete, the wall panels are lighter and more space-efficient, while still providing a high degree of soundproofing.
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“The panels get welded into tracks that are fastened to the ground and to the ceiling,” German explained. “These panels were adopted because the CIAC incorporates roughly 22 different cell configurations. Unlike prefab jail cells, these wall panels can be adapted to different layout specifications relatively easily.”
The CIAC will also incorporate a high-tech vacuum plumbing system designed by AcornVac. According to the system manufacturer, the AcornVac can reduce facility water usage by up to 68 percent compared to traditional, gravity-flow systems. Vacuum systems also significantly reduce inmates’ ability to intentionally clog or overflow their in-cell toilet, German said. If toilet misuse does occur in the new CIAC, the AcornVac system will allow staff to turn off water to specific cells, rather than forcing water shutoffs to an entire cell block.
Granger Construction will also oversee installation of the CIAC’s new electronic security system, supplied by Accurate Controls. The new facility’s electronic surveillance system will be integrated with surveillance systems at the existing jail and the county sheriff’s office.
“If you’re a corrections officer, you will be able to sit at the sheriff’s office and see [via monitors] what’s going on in central intake,” German said.
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The new CIAC facility should be fully operational by summer 2027.
“I hope once it’s in place and operating, it does exactly what the county wants it to do,” German said. “We’re all hoping it sets a new national standard for corrections work — one that incorporates proactive efforts to address mental health challenges and substance abuse issues as part of inmates’ rehabilitation.”
- Owner: Macomb County Facilities and Operations
- General Contractor: Granger Construction, Lansing, Michigan
- Architect of Record: PARTNERS in Architecture, Mount Clemens, Michigan
- Mechanical/Electrical Engineer of Record: IMEG, Rock Island, Illinois
- Corrections Architect: STV, New York, New York
- Owner Representative: Plante Moran Realpoint, Southfield, Michigan
- Other Trade Contractors/Subcontractors: Accurate Controls, Casadei, Commercial Contracting Corp., International Precast Solutions, Motor City Electric, Pauly Jail Building Company Inc., Power Process Piping, Progressive Mechanical, S & Z Sheetmetal, Simone Construction
