Detroit and Michigan leaders are working to bring Amazon's second $5 billion headquarters to Detroit.
- Amazon to create more than 1,500 jobs with Romulus fulfillment center
- Amazon is hiring 850 warehouse associates in metro Detroit
Quicken Loans Founder Dan Gilbert said in a statement he has already put together a team to work on bringing the company to Detroit.
"We have already put together a task force of internal and external people here in Detroit to fully explore the opportunity of Amazon's HQ2," Gilbert said in a statement. "We are very excited and we believe that Detroit will make an extremely strong pitch to Amazon."
The company announced on Thursday plans to find a city in North America to build its "HQ2" facility, which would cost around $5 billion to build and operate.
"We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said. "Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We are excited to find a second home."
Michigan Gov. Snyder is also on board, releasing this statement:
"Michigan's wealth of talent and a vastly improved business climate have perfectly positioned our state to become home to Amazon's next North American headquaters. Not only is Michigan a top-10 state for doing business and attracting 25-34 year olds, our workforce is growing at a higher rate than the national average and we lead the region in inbound migration for those with bachelor's degrees or higher.
"While there are may encouraging business reasons for Amazon to set up shop in Michigan, I firmly believe that our most impressive asset is the incredible, hard-working Michiganders who make our state the best in the nation."
Amazon has already invested a lot of money in metro Detroit, planning to build a fulfillment center in Michigan that is creating more than 1,500 jobs. That's on top of a fulfillment center in Livonia that is bringing nearly 1,000 jobs.
The company said they want their HQ2 to be in a suburban or urban area with more than 1 million people, wanting a community that "thinks big."
It would hire teams and executives for the new location, but Seattle employees would be offered the chance to relocate.
Their current headquarters feature nearly three dozen buildings and 24 restaurants and cafes with over 8.1 million-square-feet of space.
