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ments, it would make a big statement to bring new life to this iconic Corktown property off Michigan Avenue. The pros: It meets the size threshold and wouldn’t require booting any existing tenants. Plus, Michigan Avenue could be a natural “second leg” of the QLine with the right funding, and Anthony Soave is already developing more than 400 residences in the neighborhood. There are also large tracts of land near the property. The cons: Making the numbers work on Michigan Central Station is no small feat and the building’s layout is considered to be a challenge, although Amazon has been known to take on tricky projects in Seattle.
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to the project’s design. In addition, the rents are expected to be substantially higher than what the average market rate is downtown.
Renaissance Center/River East site/Uniroyal site The sites: Yes, it’s the headquarters of General Motors Co., but hear us out. There is about 440,000 square feet of vacant office space across three of the riverfront complex’s towers, according to a recent report from the Royal Oak office of JLL, and at least in theory, a deal could be carved out to have Amazon’s initial wave of employees occupy that space while other space is sought or built. The RenCen, owned by GM, has 2.63 million square feet of office space (plus a 1.16 million-squarefoot hotel) and plenty of GM-owned land to the east for new construction. A few miles farther east also lies the former Uniroyal Tire Co. site, long abandoned and awaiting new life for its 43 acres, which is owned by the city. The pros: A riverfront location could be enticing and an on-site hotel is a nice plus. Seventy or so acres of developable land is a good start for Amazon’s 100-acre target. The cons: First and foremost, there has been no indication that GM is looking to move from the complex and it’s difficult to envision the multinational corporations sharing a headquarters. Any deal would be extremely complex with a lot of moving pieces. This is definitely a thinkingoutside-the-box idea and probably a long shot — but worth considering.
Cadillac Place The site: The 1.4 million-square-foot former GM headquarters on West Grand Boulevard could be attractive because of the state-owned building’s sheer size, which could easily handle
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Ontario, the province in which Windsor is located, also levies a 4.5 percent to 11.5 percent corporate income tax rate, compared to Michigan’s 6 percent tax on corporate revenue. But all in all, Canada is more tax advantageous, Patterson said. It would be in the Detroit bid’s interest to highlight potential tax benefits of locating revenue-drivers in Windsor, particularly engineers generating intellectual property, such as patents, trademarks or processes, Patterson said. “Obviously we don’t know what Amazon wants and what it plans to do with its second headquarters, but if it’s capable of moving employees across the border, it could carve off a big chunk of its tax rate and get similar talent in and around Detroit, it’s a big return on investment,” Patterson said. Detroit real estate developer and mortgage mogul Dan Gilbert has assembled a committee to make a bid for Amazon’s second headquarters and was meeting with Windsor government and business leaders to discuss a possible joint bid. Gilbert said Wednesday that Detroit’s shared international border is an advantage that “nobody can compete with” in the race among big American cities to woo Amazon’s planned $5 billion investment.
Joe Louis Arena
Michigan Central Station/Corktown
LARRY PEPLIN FOR CRAIN’S
CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Executive Office Plaza/ Joe Louis Arena The site: Long vacant, the 615,000-square-foot complex owned by Danou Enterprises has at least 20 acres of vacant land immediately to the west. The pros: The buildings meet the 500,000-square-foot minimum threshold and offer lots of land to build upon nearby. In addition to good freeway access to the Lodge (M10), the soon-to-be-demolished Joe Louis Arena isn’t far away sitting on 9 acres. Holdout creditor Financial Guaranty Insurance Corp. received development rights to the JLA site during Detroit’s bankruptcy. The cons: Putting together the 100 or so acres of land Amazon wants could prove difficult near these properties.
State fairgrounds site
Amazon’s initial wave of employees. The pros: Proximity to the QLine streetcar is a big advantage, as is its location in an up-and-coming area with new housing and other developments in the works by The Platform LLC, Midtown Detroit Inc. and others. It’s also close to a research hub in Wayne State University and the College for Creative Studies. The cons: A new location for state employees who work in the building could be a challenge, but it’s not insurmountable. There’s land nearby
upon which Amazon could build, but likely not enough to meet their 100acre requirement.
The sites: At 500,000 square feet and deeply rooted in Detroit’s history, the Moroun family-owned abandoned train station has been perplexing development experts for decades. But even though it’s on the smaller side of Amazon’s initial square footage require-
The site: With 157 acres at Eight Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, the site is easily the largest single property that could make sense. The pros: It’s difficult to assemble as much land as the fairgrounds could offer contiguously. It’s a location with quick access to the suburbs along the city’s spine, and could help pave the way for an extension of the QLine. The cons: It’s well outside of the greater downtown area and has been the
“We are going to win this thing or die trying,” Gilbert said Wednesday after announcing $2.1 billion in downtown building development projects his companies are pursuing. The new, expanded and renovated office buildings Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC is developing could play a role in fulfilling Amazon’s need for 8 million square feet of new office space over the next 17 years. As Gilbert and his investment and real estate companies work on the Amazon bid package due Oct. 19, local officials have been evaluating potential solutions to Detroit’s shortcomings in transit and the educated pool of tech workers Amazon desires in software development and engineering. The most stark is the talent shortage that Michigan companies have already been grappling with in recent years. About 63 percent of adults age 25 to 64 in Ontario have some level of higher education, according to Canada’s national statistics agency. In metro Detroit, 38.4 percent of adults over age 25 have an associate’s degree or higher, according to data compiled by the Detroit Regional Chamber. “I think having the ability to have both Canadian and Detroit employees, which would happen here, relatively easy to get across the border from Windsor to go to work, I think has got some potential here,” Duggan said last week. Moving across the border for daily
commuters is supposed to get easier when — and if — two new six-lane bridges are built over the Detroit River. But construction of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge and a replacement span for the Ambassador Bridge isn’t expected to begin until next year sometime, depending on the outcome of a litany of legal battles and permitting hurdles for the competing public and privately-owned bridge projects. Another potential advantage to Amazon constructing a physical office on the Canadian side of the Detroit River is access to foreign talent. As U.S. continues to seek new restrictions and caps on immigrants to the U.S., Amazon could seek and use a new pool of foreign talent via Canada’s immigration pool. However, Canada’s immigration system is also becoming tighter, said Aimee Guthat, senior attorney at immigration law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy PLLC in Troy. “Like the U.S., Canada has a very robust set of immigration rules governing availability and eligibility for work visas,” Guthat said. “The Canadian immigration program at one time was perceived to be more liberal than U.S. immigration rules, but this is definitely changing. Canada has taken significant steps in recent years to enhance its immigration regulations and procedures and tighten security and admission procedures.” Amazon’s request for proposals said it wants a second headquarters
in a metropolitan region of at least 1 million people. With more than 4.3 million residents, metro Detroit easily meets that mark. But Windsor by itself falls well short with a metropolitan population of 329,000, according to Canada’s national statistics agency. “I’m sure our respective strengths would make the bid stronger than either one city going it alone,” said Douglas George, the Canadian consul general in Detroit. With Toronto and Ottawa also pursuing Amazon, George said he couldn’t pick sides among Canadian cities. “But whether it’s Windsor or some other Canadian city, we can bring a lot of what Amazon will need to make its new headquarters a success,” George said. Basing part of the headquarters in Windsor could attract tech workers from Toronto and more populous cities in southern Ontario, said Kristen Thomasen, assistant professor of law in robotics and society at the University of Windsor. “The thing you’re going to get with Detroit-Windsor that you’re not going to get with Toronto is a lot of relatively inexpensive real estate,” said Thomasen, who is studying Amazon’s development of artificial intelligence technology and package-delivering drones. Thomasen, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, said the tremendous growth in
Michigan Central Station/Corktown
target of a long in-the-works redevelopment planned by Magic Plus LLC, which consists of Joel Ferguson, a developer and member of the Michigan State University board of trustees; Marvin Beatty, chief community officer for Greektown Casino-Hotel; and NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
Fort Street post office The site: On Fort Street just east of Trumbull, the U.S. Post Office building is around 1 million square feet across from West Riverfront Park. The pros: It’s large enough to accommodate Amazon’s initial space requirements, is near the Detroit River and nearby sites like the Joe Louis Arena, immediately west of the Riverfront Towers residential buildings and others provide attractive building possibilities. The cons: It’s slightly off the beaten path and getting 100 acres around that site could prove challenging.
Campus Martius The site: Multiple Gilbert-owned buildings, including One Campus Martius, First National Building, Chase Tower, One Detroit Center to the south and others. These could also be coupled with office space at Gilbert’s Monroe Block and Hudson’s site developments. The pros: A central core encircling the popular downtown park and peppered with dozens of restaurants and coffee shops nearby, Campus Martius would be an ideal location, with more than 2.5 million square feet of prime office space already built touching the park. The QLine streetcar runs right through it. Gilbert already owns most of the buildings nearby and could offer a package deal. The cons: It’s occupied by the some of the city’s most prestigious tenants, including Gilbert’s Quicken Loans, and there isn’t a lot of land surrounding it on which to build new buildings that haven't already been proposed. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB Toronto in recent years has gentrified one-time bedroom communities like her hometown and pushed workers further away from Canada’s largest city. “Toronto’s a fantastic city,” Thomasen said. “But there are elements of living and working there that’s becoming increasingly difficult.” Windsor partnering with Detroit also presents Amazon with a potential logistics advantage, said Alex Calderone, managing director of Birmingham-based corporate advisory firm Calderone Advisory Group. “Amazon seeks to disrupt just about every step of the supply chain,” Calderone said. “The Detroit, Windsor region offers both a workforce and physical infrastructure that is capable of moving products efficiently and effectively across North America." On the online retail end of its business, Amazon already is building three regional distribution centers in Livonia, Romulus and Shelby Township. “If logistics services are in its cross hairs, what better place to be headquartered than along one of both countries’ busiest international borders; particularly given the new bridge capacity that may come on line in the near future?” Calderone said. Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042 Twitter: @dustinpwalsh