Gilbert touts Detroit (and maybe Windsor) as 'legit contender' for Amazon's HQ2

Businessman Dan Gilbert on Wednesday called Detroit a "legit contender" in the competition to land Amazon's second headquarters that may involve partnering with Windsor to wow the e-commerce firm with a joint bid.

"I think Detroit is a legit contender to win over Amazon," said the Quicken Loans founder, whom Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has tasked with putting together Detroit's bid. "We have a legitimate shot."

Addressing questions at a news conference, Gilbert said that 30 to 40 people are working round-the-clock in a "war room" that has been set up to devise Detroit's proposal to Amazon.

"What we look for (is) ‘What are the assets that Detroit has — and we have many of them — that no city is going to be able to compete against?'" he said.

Amazon, based in Seattle, has said it intends to invest $5 billion in construction of its second headquarters and create 50,000 jobs in whichever North American city prevails. These Amazon jobs are estimated to pay between $120,000 and $175,000 a year and spur tens of thousands of additional spin-off jobs.

"As you know we’re talking to Windsor," Gilbert said. "It might be an international, sort of two-country effort. That’s something nobody can compete with.”

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The billionaire businessman also said that staff from consulting firms have been working free to help Detroit snag Amazon's so-called HQ2.

“We had large consulting firms donating their time — ones that charge you like $100,000 to say ‘Hello,’” Gilbert said.

However, Gilbert and Duggan declined to say how Detroit would be pitched to Amazon. They said publicizing such details would give competing cities too much insight into Detroit's strategy.

"There’s guys sitting in Boston, New York, Chicago, and they’re trying to figure out what we’re going to pitch so they can have whatever we’re going to pitch and counter it in their proposal," Gilbert said.

Detroit is generally considered a long-shot in the Amazon headquarters competition.

The Economist magazine recently addressed Detroit's chances, saying an Amazon headquarters could "single-handedly transform the economy of Detroit."

But the London-based publication played down any possibility that Detroit could triumph. It warned that Amazon "would face the risk of municipal financial woes" by opening a Detroit headquarters, in addition to "the need to lure tens of thousands of workers to a place with far fewer consumer comforts to offer than New York or San Francisco."

A New York Times analysis called Detroit a sentimental pick, but ruled out the city due to a lack of recent job growth.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.