To lure Amazon's HQ2, Detroit would free it from many taxes and allow it to pocket employees' st -

It's no secret cities across the country are falling all over themselves to land Amazon's second headquarters and its promise of 50,000 jobs.

Count Detroit among those that have made extraordinarily generous offers to convince the e-tail giant to set up shop in their neck of the woods. Just how generous? Crain's Detroit Business, which got a copy of Detroit's bid, offers a picture.

Should it choose to accept the joint bid from Detroit and neighboring Windsor, Canada, Amazon would receive extensive tax breaks and be allowed to pocket the state income taxes paid by its Detroit employees for 20 years. Meanwhile, the state of Michigan has committed to investing $120 million to train students to become tech workers.

"The road has been paved for Amazon," said businessman Dan Gilbert, who is the chairman of the committee leading Detroit's bid effort, in a letter to the company. "There is no better place for you to innovate and continue to improve the delivery of your customer experience."

Under Detroit-Windsor's 242-page offer, Amazon would be able to keep all of the state income taxes paid by its HQ2 workers for the first 10 years and then half of those taxes over the next 10 years. It would also be able to operate in Detroit for 30 years without incurring real estate, personal property, city income, or utility users taxes. The documents redact the value of the tax incentives, so it's unclear how much they'd be worth.

In addition, the proposal provides copious details regarding the physical makeup of Amazon's potential headquarters. The bid proposes a campus similar to Amazon's Seattle compound that would include the construction of 20 new buildings along 28 acres sprawling along the city's east Riverfront.

Rust belt cities such as Detroit and Chicago have been particularly eager to land Amazon's new headquarters and the promise of thousands of high-paying tech jobs. But numerous studies have indicated that the kinds of tax incentives cities offer to lure or keep businesses usually don't pay off.

Amazon plans to announce the location of its second headquarters in 2018.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7scHLrJxnppdkr6p7056aoWekmrCpedOoZKWtopp6ornAs6anq12dvnN5w56rq6eZqXq4u9Slm2aeopqybrXTZp2rp51iuqK62GarmrCVqHqiusNmmKWkn6x6qsCMraZmqJ%2BYuKbAjm%2BdpWmiZbs%3D