Mercedes-Benz USA is seeking more than $1 million in incentives for moving its corporate headquarters to Sandy Springs, according to city documents.
MBUSA also wants the city to cover nearly $2 million in streetscape and road improvement costs, according to the documents. The Sandy Springs City Council will consider both requests at its Dec. 1 meeting.
MBUSA’s move from New Jersey to the Abernathy Road area is already approved, and the luxury automaker is now based in temporary offices in Dunwoody. The company plans to build a $63 million headquarters in Sandy Springs and relocate about 640 employees there in time for a 2018 opening.
The incentive package sought by MBUSA includes a waiver of building permit fees estimated at $785,250 and a three-year waiver of business occupational taxes, beginning in 2019, estimated at $75,000 per year. The total value of the incentive package is $1,010,250.
In addition, MBUSA wants the city to build or pay for a variety of new sidewalks, rebuilt intersections and utility relocations at a cost of about $1.9 million.
In the city documents describing the request, city staff recommends paying MBUSA $1,027,000 to cover part of those costs. That money would come directly from the projected impact fees that developer Ashton Woods will pay for the residential part of the project surrounding the new corporate headquarters.
In addition, the city would provide or plan a variety of other improvements, including a bus shelter, a resurfacing of Barfield Road and a plan with other agencies to start a commuter shuttle service.
Also on the list: installing new signs “associated with the renaming of Barfield Road.” MBUSA is proposing to rename part of Barfield as “Mercedes-Benz Drive.” The council has yet to vote on that proposal, which is opposed by a descendant of the family for whom Barfield Road is named.
The public will have plenty of time to read the road signs as they sit in traffic exacerbated by the MB headquarters commuter traffic.