After about eight months of being on the market, Lubbock’s old county jail was sold to the highest bidder and officially signed over this week.
“Well you can’t help but drive through downtown Lubbock and see changes,” County Commissioner, Precinct 1 Bill McCay said. “It’s a slow process but the bid, the investors, the folks in this community, you can just tell every day that they’re making more and more progress.”
Built in 1931, the old jail held hundreds of inmates until about five years ago on the third, fourth, and fifth floors. Now vacant in that area, part of the Sheriff’s Department still houses that building.
“Because of jail overcrowding, had to repopulate back in 1991,” McCay said. “Its got about 6,000 square feet per floor, just over 30,000 square feet.”
After law enforcement increased in the area and the Sheriff’s Department grew, this building could no longer hold these departments.
Some of the Sheriff’s Department moved to a new facility next door, but are still in the process of transferring for the next couple of months.
“So we really thought through the possibilities,” McCay said. “Tearing it down wold cost a million dollars, and a million tears of people not wanting it tore down. So we put it on the market. The gentleman who purchased the old federal post office building, the federal court house just to the south of it, he turned a bid in and he was the successful bidder.”
Commissioner McCay and Director of Facility Maintenance Lyle Fetterly told KLBK and EverythingLubbock.com the buyer’s name is John Snyder, a businessman from Tulsa. McCay added he is also the owner of Brickhugger, LLC realty company.
“From our understanding and what research we did, he purchased an old historic hotel in downtown Tulsa and renovated that piece into a show piece,” McCay said. “So based on that and he has some Lubbock ties and he has an interest in Lubbock, he just seems really excited about the opportunity.”
EverythingLubbock.com has reached out to Snyder via email, phone, and social media and is still waiting on a response.
However, McCay said Snyder agreed to wait on future projects until the rest of the Sheriff’s Department has fully moved.
“It’s a really good feeling, it really is,” McCay said. “We’re not that old, we’re still a pretty new community compared to the East coast and Europe. But for us it’s pretty cool to be able to hang onto something that’s really substantial and be able to look at that building and the architect it’s really a unique building.”
