“We look forward to partnering with [the city] to deliver a new state-of-the-art facility that will enable DDC’s historic plan to close Riker’s Island and replace it with a smaller network of safer modern jails,” says Ronald Tutor, chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini, in a statement.

Design of the project is expected to begin in June, but Tutor Perini did not disclose a completion date. “The owner is still going through the remaining steps in contract registration process ahead of providing us with a notice to proceed,” says a firm spokesperson.

In a May 4 first quarter 2023 results call with investors and analysts, the firm reported its "backlog stood at $7.9 billion at the end of the first quarter and has already grown significantly in the second quarter with the addition of more than $3.2 billion of new awards," including the Brooklyn jail project. "These new projects. together with others we expect to capture later this year, will provide a strong foundation for growth and improved profitability over the next several years," Tutor says. 

In a March 18 fourth quarter 2022 results call, Tutor said he was also optimistic about making a proposal in May for the $3-billion Queens jail. The firm did not provide a specific date. 

The New York City Boroughs-Based Jails System's Brooklyn facility contract is one of four separate design-build contracts with early works packages DDC has awarded for four new jails in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, according to its report A Roadmap to Closing Rikers. The city plans to begin housing the city’s jail population after a legally-binding closure of Rikers in 2027, where 19 people died last year.

But the city recently said the Brooklyn jail may not be complete until 2029, raising concerns among those who support closing Rikers on where inmates will be housed in the interim. 

While the jail's current population at nearly 6,000 and rising, the city plans for a smaller jail system to house a population of no more than 3,300 with 3,544 beds “to allow for operational flexibility,” it said. Such a plan is estimated to save the city about $2 billion in annual operating costs and add more space for facilities programming.

“We are proceeding forward on the City’s Borough-Based Jails program, where design-build firms will create some of the world’s most advanced and humane facilities so that New York City can close Rikers Island,” Thomas Foley,  NYC DDC commissioner“ told ENR.

"These highly visible civic structures will transform New York City’s justice system, and we plan for them to reflect the best in modern correctional practice while also integrating public comment so that they fit well into surrounding communities.," he added.

The planned new Brooklyn jail will have 886 beds for men and 292 underground parking spaces for staff and service providers and 30,000 sq ft of  “community space” on the ground floor. Northstar Contracting has begun dismantling the Brooklyn Detention Center, the site of the replacement jail, which is set from May 1 to May 5, a spokesperson says. The weekly construction bulletin lists plans for removal of the site’s lower-level structure and debris for the podium and tank installation for piping installation.

The city is committed to building high quality buildings prominently located in New York’s boroughs to “equal the immense impact they will have on the lives of individuals,” the city plan says. “These facilities must be beacons of high quality civic architecture” that integrate into their neighborhoods and “are assets to all New Yorkers.”  

In October 2019, the city passed a law for closure of all jail facilities on Rikers Island by 2027. But Mayor Eric Adams has voiced doubts about meeting that legally-binding closure plan signed into law by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

In 2020, when the DDC put the Rikers jail replacement program out for bid, Building Trades Employers Association president and CEO Lou Coletti said the procurement method would streamline what had been a process whose “rules and regulations are onerous,” adding that the Rikers replacement project would “absolutely” be a key measure for the city’s design-build aspirations.