Group Executive of Construction & Building Operations
As Director of the Construction & Demolition Department, LaJuan Counts has been primarily responsible for managing many major City facility construction projects, such as the restoration and relocation of the State Fair bandshell to Palmer Park and the renovation and reactivation of the Detroit Fire Department’s former Ladder 30, which was decommissioned years ago.
Counts also oversees the City’s residential and commercial demolition programs. This has included the removal of 7,000 dangerous vacant homes under Proposal N, and dozens of large vacant commercial buildings that have served as impediments to progress in neighborhoods across the city. This includes the ongoing demolition of the sprawling former Packard Plant, which has sat vacant for more than 50 years. Aside from two sections on either side of Grand Boulevard, which are being saved to preserve a portion of the plant’s history, the plant will be fully demolished and gone by early 2025.
Counts, a resident of the Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood, previously served as the director of the City’s General Services Department and oversaw more than 750 employees across several divisions, including park development, facilities maintenance, forestry, the City's vehicle fleet, landscape design and project management.
As Group Executive for Construction and Building Operations, Counts will expand her portfolio, which will include the following City departments and affiliated agencies:
- Department of Public Works
- Detroit Building Authority
- Detroit Land Bank Authority
- Construction & Demolition Department