Nashville, Davidson County Seek Design and Construction Contractor for New $410 Million Detention Facility

The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office in Tenneessee is seeking design and construction contractors to build a new $410 million replacement jail facility in Nashville. | Photo Credit: Davidson County Sheriff’s Office

What You Need to Know

• The Davidson County, Tenn., Sheriff’s Office has issued a request for qualifications seeking a contractor to demolish two existing jails and build a new detention facility on the same site.
• The plan calls for an approximately 1,867-bed, 500,806-square-foot facility with a maximum guaranteed price target of $410 million, according to the request.
• Metro Nashville Council approval will be required for future funding beyond initial design and planning dollars already included in the city’s capital spending plan.
• Sheriff Daron Hall cites overcrowding, the closure of the former Metro Detention Facility and aging infrastructure as drivers; public defense leadership and the mayor’s office have raised questions about cost and priorities.
• Bids are due April 16, and the project is expected to take about 36 months once a contractor is selected, the sheriff said.

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NASHVILLE – The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office has begun early procurement steps for a major jail replacement project, seeking a contractor to demolish two existing facilities on a campus on Harding Place and construct a new detention center on the same site.

According to the sheriff’s office’s request for qualifications (RFQ), the project would demolish two facilities at 5113 Harding Place: the 768-bed Correctional Development Center – Male and the former Metro Detention Facility, which once held 1,200 people and has been closed since 2020. The RFQ envisions an approximately 1,867-bed detention facility spanning about 500,806 square feet on the same site, with a maximum guaranteed price target of $410 million.

Paying for the project will depend on future Metro Nashville Council approval. Velvet Hunter, assistant director of Metro General Services’ administration division, said $14 million in initial funding was approved in the fall 2026 capital spending plan to begin planning and design, with additional funding requests expected to complete construction, according to reporting from The Tennesseean.

Sheriff Daron Hall has said Nashville’s jails are overcrowded following the closure of the Metro Detention Facility after the city ended its relationship with CoreCivic in 2020. Hall said city and state experts later deemed the 1992-era facility “uninhabitable,” prompting the relocation of about 500 people and leaving the building shuttered.

Hall also said the Correctional Development Center – Male, which opened in 1997, is nearing the end of its life cycle and is difficult to operate because of its aging layout.

“It’s just a big open dormitory, and you don’t build those anymore. They’re just very difficult to manage and are also difficult to maintain,” Hall told The Tennesseean.

Pressure on beds has led the sheriff’s office to house about 300 people in a nearby building known as the Annex, Hall said, despite the Annex having a stated capacity of 150. Hall said the arrangement is temporary and underscores the need to move quickly on replacement capacity.

Some city stakeholders are asking for more information as the procurement process moves forward. A spokesperson for Mayor Freddie O’Connell said the administration was not prepared to weigh in without more clarity on costs. Nashville Public Defender Martesha Johnson Moore said she does not believe adding usable jail beds is the solution to overcrowding and questioned whether the city’s spending priorities match community needs.

Under the RFQ’s two-phase approach, contractors would first demolish the vacant Metro Detention Facility and partially build the new detention center, then relocate incarcerated people from the Correctional Development Center – Male into completed sections. In the second phase, the remaining older facility would be demolished and the rest of the new complex built.

Bids are due April 16. Hall said the project is expected to take 36 months once a contractor is selected.

This article is based on reporting originally published by The Tennessean on March 27, 2026.