Detroit delivers city's bid for Amazon headquarters

DETROIT (WJBK) - The City of Detroit has delivered Thursday its bid for the second Amazon headquarters.

Leading the effort, billionaire Quicken Loans founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert made the announcement around 11:30 a.m.

Accompanying the confirmation the bid has been submitted was this Detroit Moves video:

"Detroiters are born moving. Our wings have a deep history. Our roads paved the way for every future highway of tomorrow. An international hub full of vitality of Michigan strength," the speaker says.

The Motor City is among several cities working to get Amazon's attention. The company is looking for a metro area with a population of at least a million, with an international airport and access to mass transit. Should Amazon choose Detroit, it would create an estimated 50,000 jobs.

Top business leaders point to the highly skilled work force, top universities, a first class airport, a million plus in terms of population and of course the amount of vacant land.

Amazon considering Detroit for second headquarters

"Detroit has to put together business case what we have to say to Amazon this is our business case," said Mark Lee, who opened the Lee Group, a successful Detroit marketing firm in the midst of Michigan's recession. "If you invest in the city, you get the return on the investment may have to talk about some tax abatements."

Detroit is competing with the likes of Birmingham, AL, which constructed giant Amazon boxes and placed them around the city, or Kansas City, where the mayor bought a thousand items from Amazon and posted reviews of each one. In Tucson, AZ, officials uprooted a 21-foot-tall cactus and tried to have it delivered to Amazon's Seattle headquarters.

As part of Detroit's proposal, the City of Southfield is offering the former 125-acre Northland Mall as a site for one of Amazon’s HQ2 facilities. Citing the Macy's building as potential for repurposing, the city says the underground service tunnel was in its heyday used as a shipping and receiving hub with more than 380 rooms.