Detroit may team up with Windsor for Amazon HQ bid

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The city of Detroit is putting together a hard sell to become the home of Amazon's second headquarters. And now Windsor is teaming up with The Motor City to make a bid for the online retail giant.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan made Dan Gilbert the lead in the bid for a new Amazon headquarters and, thanks to our friends across the river, it's getting a big boost. Call it the bi-national bid.

Gilbert is considering teaming up with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens in hopes of securing twin locations for Amazon's second headquarters in Detroit and Windsor.

Dilkens and Gilbert are planning to meet this week to talk details to lure the online shopping giant and 50,000 jobs to the region.

On our own, Detroit is considered a longshot for securing the winning bid for Amazon's HQ2.

But Dan Gilbert says in a statement:

"Detroit is the only city competing for Amazon's headquarters that not only sits on an international border, but the busiest international border of one of our country's largest trading partners.

"In addition, the city of Windsor, province of Ontario and all of Canada has a large, skilled technology workforce. Amazon will be able to draw employees from two countries rich in technology talent with diverse backgrounds while cementing it as the first major company in the world whose headquarters would literally share an international border."

Amazon has been expanding its footprint in metro Detroit lately. A fulfillment center will open in Livonia by year's end. Centers in Shelby Township and Romulus are slated to open in 2018, and Amazon opened a technology hub and corporate office in Detroit in 2015.

Metro Detroit lacks a regional transit system - and that's a must-have for Amazon. For what it's worth, Windsor's mayor floated the idea of creating a cable car crossing the Detroit River for the potential twin headquarters.

Dan Gilbert plans to release more details about Detroit's bid for the second Amazon HQ Thursday.