Mercedes-Benz Receives $24,540 Per Job To Move To Atlanta

The announcement of Mercedes-Benz USA’s corporate headquarters relocation from New Jersey to Georgia may have been all about better-serving customers and long-term growth, but it appears some hefty deals were also behind it.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the state of Georgia’s incentive package to lure Mercedes’ U.S. headquarters down to the Atlanta area was valued at about $24,540 per job, or roughly $23.3 million for the 950 employees expected to come to the state.

That’s a healthy chunk of cash in the form of grants and tax credits, but it will most likely be a big boost in the long run for the state of Georgia.

Mercedes announced Jan. 6, after much speculation, it would relocate its U.S. headquarters from its long-standing home in Montvale, New Jersey to Atlanta starting in July, and build a new permanent headquarters in that area by 2017.

“(New Jersey) has worked tirelessly with us as we evaluated our options,” Mercedes USA CEO Steve Cannon said Jan. 6. “Ultimately, though, it became apparent that to achieve the sustained, profitable growth and efficiencies we require for the decades ahead, our headquarters would have to be located elsewhere. That brought us to Atlanta.”

It’s the second big automotive headquarters in a year, following Toyota’s decision to shift its American outpost from suburban Los Angeles to the Dallas area.