Mercedes HQ moving to Atlanta

Mercedes Benz USA is moving its headquarters from Montvale, New Jersey to Atlanta, Georgia. Executives and other staff will move to temporary quarters in Atlanta beginning July, 2015, affecting about 1,000 employees who will initially get a temporary home.

The locations in Montvale and Robbinsvale, New Jersey will be maintained. The new headquarter will be built and completed by early 2017. Divisions like service engineering, IT and customer assistance will not move until the permanent headquarters are finished.

The new location of the headquarter is positioned closer to one of the Mercedes ports in Brunswick, Georgia and the manufacturing facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama which is responsible for about half of the Mercedes vehicles sold in the United States. Some officials say that the New Jersey's high taxes are also a major factor for businesses and wealthy individuals moving away.

New Jersey promised more than $2 billion in future tax breaks to companies moving to or remaining in the state, more than it promised from 1996 through 2009 combined, and could have offered Mercedes-Benz up to $15 million. However, Steve Cannon, president of Mercedes-Benz USA, said incentives played a small role in determining the finalist cities including Atlanta, Dallas, Raleigh, N.C., and Charlotte, N.C. Access to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was also a crucial factor, he said, because Mercedes-Benz USA will soon assume oversight of operations for Canada and Mexico in addition to the U.S., he said. Executives will be traveling regularly across the continent and to Europe, and dealers will be coming in for training often. The quality of life, schools and cultural options in Atlanta were also reasons to move to Atlanta.