MONTVALE, N.J. — Mercedes-Benz USA announced this week it relocate its corporate headquarters to Atlanta from its current facility in Montvale, N.J. The new headquarters is scheduled to be completed in 2017.

MBUSA executives and staff will move to a temporary facility in Atlanta’s Perimeter Center starting in July 2015. The move will affect 1,000 employees and will take place in phases to minimize any business operations disruptions.  

Company officials said the move to Atlanta Is designed to better serve its growing customer base and strengthen the company’s long-term growth. The move places the headquarters closer to its growing Southeast customer base, its port in Brunswick, Ga., and to the company's Alabama manufacturing facility, which accounts for half of the vehicles sold in the U.S. market, according to MBUSA.

“New Jersey has been a wonderful home to our U.S. operations for our first 50 years and still is today,” said Stephen Cannon, president and CEO of MBUSA. “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.”