Sandy Springs Approves $1 Million Mercedes Benz Incentive

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The Sandy Springs City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve a request from Mercedes Benz USA to waive necessary fees to bring their headquarters to the city.

Council members voted to approve a request from the company to waive building permit and business license fees for their planned relocation to the former Glenridge Hall site.

Broken down, the $1 million incentive package includes:

• Construction permit fee waivers: $785,250; and
• Projected business occupational tax waiver: $75,000 each for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Mercedes plans to relocate its headquarters from New Jersey to Sandy Springs. It’s leasing a temporary site in Dunwoody and its new home in Sandy Springs will include an office building and training facility.

The investment is slated to be around $63 million and will include 521 jobs.

On the topic of company’s relocation, Council members also approved a request to reimburse Mercedes $1.02 million for making certain infrastructure improvements in the area where its development will be situated.

Some of the improvements include sidewalks, street lighting, landscaping, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, traffic improvements (one full movement intersection along Abernathy Road; right in/out from Abernathy Road to the property; full movement intersection -- not signalized -- on property to Barfield Road; dedicated turn lanes along Abernathy Road; and a northbound dedicated left turn lane along Barfield Road) and utility relocation to allow for infrastructure improvements.

This amount is equal to the projected impact fees Sandy Springs will receive for transportation from the Ashton Woods portion of the project. Mercedes will be paid the money upon city inspection of the improvements and verification of the costs.

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Image via Shutterstock