Southfield Steps Up With Amazon HQ Proposal Of Its Own

SOUTHFIELD, MI—Like nearby Detroit and numerous large cities across the nation, Southfield has its eyes on the ultimate economic development prize: Amazon’s second headquarters. The city has proposed the site of the old Northland Mall for the online retailing giant’s new HQ.

The mall, which closed in March 2015, is now owned by the city. Among the features the city is touting: the site is close to downtown Detroit and the airport, it’s on a 125-acre site that environmentally sound for a commercial development and the the vacant 500,000-square-foot Macy’s store is ripe for reuse, according to media reports.

In its heyday, the mall, which opened in 1954, had about 100 tenants. Among its major tenants was the upscale Detroit-based retailer J.L. Hudson Co., who built the mall. After it’s final tenant, Macy’s, closed, the city bought the mall for $2.5 million. Southfield expects to spend another $8 million to $10 million to demolish it, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Amazon announced earlier this month it would spend more than $5 billion to build another HQ in North America that would house some 50,000 employees, while maintaining its current operation in Seattle, which has 33 buildings, 23 restaurants and 40,000 employees. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from your Detroit Patch, and click here to find your local Michigan Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Among the requirements: The retailer wants to be near a metropolitan area with more than a million people; be able to attract top technical talent; be within 45 minutes of an international airport; have direct access to mass transit; and be able to expand that headquarters to as much as 8 million square feet in the next decade.

Southfield spokesman Michael Manion said Southfield has all that, according to the Free Press.

"We reviewed the request for proposals that Amazon put out, and we seem to meet all of the characteristics that they are looking for," said Michael Manion, community relations director for the City of Southfield.

Southfield's proposal comes just a week after Detroit Mayor Michael Duggan tapped Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert to lead an panel of civic leaders to get the Amazon HQ in Detroit.

Meantime, Southfield says that if it is unsuccessful in luring Amazon to town, the Northland mall will meet the wrecking ball, according to the Detroit News. That plan also includes the razing of the Macy's store.

Patch file photo