Mercedes-Benz USA Headquarters
• Mercedes will build its U.S. division hub in Sandy Springs on a portion of the Glenridge Hall tract. The campus will cover 12-acres just south of Abernathy Road and include a 250,000-square-foot office building. The company plans to create or relocate 800 to 1,000 jobs.
• Homebuilder Ashton Woods plans to build a residential community with retail on the remaining two tracts. The fate of an historic mansion on the northern end of the property is not immediately known.
• Mercedes will likely have openings in finance, marketing, sales, engineering and other administrative roles. The company expects to fill 50 percent to 60 percent of the jobs locally.
• The company recently launched a website, www.mbatlantacareers.com, for applicants to inquire about positions.
Mercedes-Benz USA made a lot of headlines with its decision last month to move from New Jersey to Georgia.
Last Tuesday the company announced its pick of Sandy Springs for its new headquarters site. The 12-acre property on Abernathy Road near Ga. 400 is on a portion of the city’s largest undeveloped tract.
Stephen Cannon, the company’s CEO, said employees who will relocate will tour the area for homes starting this month, and the first major wave of workers will be moved and hired this summer. Cannon spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the move and how the decision was reached:
Q: Where does the move stand today?
A: We’re at the very beginning of a complex transition. We have 1 million-plus customers (who drive Mercedes-Benz cars in the U.S.), we have 375 dealers who all want to be taken care of. They don’t care that we’re moving from New Jersey to Atlanta… It’s a complex thing, we think that 40 to 50 percent of our people will make the move, which means 50 to 60 percent need to be locally-sourced, and then ramped up and locally trained so obviously we have to do that all while making the move.
Q: What types of jobs are you going to be filling or relocating here?
A: We need marketing folks who have marketing and media experience, we need people with product management skills, and we need service engineers. (The headquarters) will have a sales organization and customer care teams — so a broad range of headquarters functions.
Q: Why did you pick Sandy Springs?
A: The location we found in the Central Perimeter really for us is the perfect spot and something no other location could offer us. Whether you are a millennial and want to live in an urban environment downtown, or you want to live in Buckhead, or it’s more about families and schools and you want to live in Alpharetta, (Sandy Springs) is in the center.
Q: You mentioned planning for the needs of the new millennial workforce.
A: We are making a long term decision, so you have to look at a longer time horizon. Millennials are coming into the workforce in large numbers and they’ve got very particular wishes and things they are willing to do and not willing to do. A young millennial is not going to go live in the suburbs, and if you are a company who can only offer them suburban access, they’re going to say, “Thank you, I’m going to go somewhere else.” So if we’re going to win the talent war and continue to attract millennials, which is our next generation workforce, we thing the Sandy Springs location allows us to do that.”
Q: You’ll be moving to a rapidly growing area with a lot of congestion…
A: We’re coming from the Tri-State area, so our folks have been fighting New York and New Jersey traffic. You talk about congestion like you’ve cornered the market on it. We’ve got plenty of congestion (in New Jersey). …If you are in Alpharetta, you are going to have a 25-minute commute. If you are in Buckhead, it’s a 15-minute commute. We’ll have MARTA access and shuttles to our campus. Every city has issues like (traffic).
Q: How will you be involved in the development of the remaining Glenridge Hall site?
A: (The developer is) going to consult us, obviously, so that we don’t have any disconnects about what’s located (there). But we are able to take the first shot at the first 12 acres. There’s mixed-use, there’s retail but who knows, the developer might re-think some things now that they’ve got an anchor like Mercedes-Benz.
Q: New Jersey was aggressive in trying to keep you.
A: New Jersey did the best they could to try to keep us. At the end, (Gov.) Chris Christie said he understood. Ultimately I told him, “This is not about incentives.” If you look at it over a 50-year timeline, incentives don’t make the business case.
Comments and questions were edited for length and clarity.
