Document unfurls vision for a remade downtown

Plan targets land east of RenCen and failed jail site

"It's kind of like voodoo," Gilbert says of process

A constellation of new skyscrapers and mid- and low-rise buildings throughout greater downtown. New retail. Thousands of new apartments.

A 242-page bound, book-sized proposal submitted to Amazon.com Inc. in October unfurls a decadelong vision for downtown Detroit construction that incorporates the online retail giant's sprawling planned "second headquarters" campus in the city and Windsor. A copy of the proposal was obtained by Crain's on Tuesday.

The proposal led by Dan Gilbert, the city's most influential landlord and builder, offers a sweeping picture of multiple large sites in the greater downtown populated with dozens of new buildings with millions of square feet of new office space and thousands of apartments.

Ranging from existing properties in Gilbert's vast downtown real estate portfolio to new construction along the Detroit riverfront and on Gratiot Avenue properties including the site of the half-finished Wayne County jail, the proposal includes just more than 11 million square feet of existing and new space across more than 91 acres in Detroit and Windsor. There is no development cost provided in the document, but it would easily be in the billions of dollars.

The document was prepared in response to an Amazon request for proposals from metropolitan areas to house its second headquarters, which the Seattle-based company says would bring with it 50,000 high-paying jobs with annual compensation averaging $100,000 or more. Amazon said it is likely to need 8 million square feet of space in the next 15-17 years and that a decision on where to build its so-called HQ2 would be made in 2018. That led to a bidding war, with more than 200 communities submitting proposals to Amazon by the Oct. 19 deadline.

Complete coverage of the quest for Amazon HQ2

Gilbert said during a Tuesday interview with Crain's that the sites proposed to Amazon were selected to show a wide range of development options, not to suggest that those are the only possible locations the company could go if it chose Detroit.

The wow factor comes from what is envisioned for a series of sites through 2027 and beyond where all told, more than 6.475 million square feet of office space is proposed if the company chooses Detroit.

"It's kind of like voodoo," he said, adding that he met briefly with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in November but didn't press him on Detroit's bid; instead they mostly talked about Amazon's company culture.