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Just to clarify, we seem to be discussing two different old PD buildings. There is the one that was torn down as part of urban renewal. It was at Ottawa and Crescent. Because I'm old and can remember it, this is the one I consider to be the original: oldest Then there is its replacement called the "Hall of Justice" designed by Roger Allen and Associates (where have I heard that name before.) not as old The police department was in the one story part on the north. It is the one that was in the way of DeVos Place. Also it was Gantos that was combined with Herpolsheimer's. Jacobson's was a block or two east on Fulton.

===== The original building The PD was in the court house at Michigan/Monroe, site of the DeVos Center. They moved the PD to upper Monroe because that building was a retail bust. Originally it had been the home of Herpolsheimer's -- the building was dedicated in the mid 50s by the Queen Beatrix or the Netherlands. In the retail consolidation of the 80s they made that building and the Jacobsens next door (Jakes was a high end clothing retailer, more for women; their big store was in EGR) into an indoor mall. it sort of worked, even as retail collapsed downtown. Herps was bought, there was a name change, but the retailing fizzled. Eventually the building was an atrium with a lot of empty storefronts. So the PD moving there solved two problems: The police got a home and the city hot rid of a retail eyesore. The politics of the move Political background: the mall had been bought by Peter Secchia then sold to the Granger Group (2001) then redeveloped. this purchase had been controversial, since many wanted the police department in the same building as the courts (there, back on the old site, Ottawa/Lyon). In the run-up to the move, there had been plenty of discussion and hints that this was an insider deal -- that is certainly plausible given the players.