Mercedes Benz to Park Its U.S. Headquarters in Atlanta
The North American arm of German automaker Mercedes Benz is shifting its headquarters from Montvale, New Jersey south to Georgia. Beginning in July, the company will move into temporary office space at Sterling Pointe II, a 186,000-square-foot, Class A office building at the Perimeter Center complex in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody.
At the same time, Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) said it would start construction of a $74 million, state-of-the-art administration campus on a 12-acre, ‘greenfield’ site located at Barfield Roads in Sandy Springs, near the Georgia capital at the intersection of Georgia 400 and Interstate 285. The new headquarters is set for completion in early 2018.
As part of the relocation, the automaker said it will continue to maintain several operational business units in both Montvale and Robbinsville, New Jersey. Announcement of the relocation was made by MBUSA President and CEO Stephen Cannon in January, but no further details have been released. New Jersey-based employees will begin relocation in June, while operations at the new headquarters are expected to create at least 800 new jobs.
The move by MBUSA is seen as the latest development in the auto industry’s perceived “U.S. Southern shift,” with Georgia reportedly in confidential talks with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on a possible assembly plant project. JLR—originally a U.K.-based operation now owned by India’s Tata Motors—is reportedly looking to expand its footprint in the U.S. and has been on the lookout for a suitable location in the U.S., preferably in the Southeast, to build a new facility.
In another example of the “shift,” last month, Japan’s Toyota broke ground at a new U.S. headquarters in Plano, Texas, in an incentive-fueled move from Southern California, where the company had been based for more than 50 years.
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