PORTSMOUTH, Va. - — Wayne Gant enjoys walking on the waterfront, but says the view could be better.
"It's an eyesore," Gant says of the City Jail, which has sat in downtown on the waterfront since 1969.
Once again, the city is talking about moving inmates elsewhere and redeveloping the area.
"You could tear that down and put stores and restaurants, a retail area. Maybe build it back up," said Gant.
Last week, the Authority Board of the Hampton Roads Regional Jail voted to close that jail, which is also in Portsmouth, by April 1.
Portsmouth Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke told News 3 the city is eyeing the property to make it into the city jail.
"We've been looking on move our jail or clean off our waterfront property for a while, so this is an opportunity to at least look at this as an option," she said last week.
Still, details need to be worked out.
The Board's Vice-Chair, Pete Buryk from the City of Norfolk, said he didn't have a property assessment of the jail, but the city's real estate assessor lists its value at more than $131 million.
The building's capacity is also about 1,300 inmates, which is much greater than the City Jail's capacity of 288.
"It's a big space and it's definitely going to have to be in agreement with all of the member jurisdictions," said Lucas-Burke.
The city has long been trying to redevelop the area.
Over the years, there's been some back-and-forth with Sheriff Michael Moore and the city, including in 2019 when the city manager's office tried to condemn the building.
That led to the Sheriff suing. The city council later voted to drop the case in 2021 and the jail has remained open.
In this year's city budget, the city is spending $125,000 to examine moving the City Jail.
As for this latest idea to move the City Jail to the Regional Jail building, Sheriff Moore hasn't publicly commented since the vote to close the Regional Jail.
Buryk says the Authority is still working out what to do with the site.
"The Board is exploring options. We don't have a final plan for that yet, but we are exploring options. That is the Board's responsibility still," said Buryk.
