So, we have some info now, by the link provided above...
From here:
http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2015/...or_atlanta.html
Quote:
1,000. That's roughly how many people worked at Mercedes-Benz's U.S. headquarters in Montvale. The company said "several operational areas" will remain in Montvale and Robbinsville, N.J. though how many full-time workers will remain in New Jersey was not revealed. Non-exempt employees like secretarial and support staff will be likely be left behind during the move, while a chunk of employees in Montvale will likely relocate to Atlanta, according to John Boyd, a corporate site specialist at Princeton-based The Boyd Company.
OK, Mercedes said 1600. And, they will retain operations in NJ, so those costs will remain/continue. Obviously there is a basis why some other embedded stuff was not worth/cost effective to move.
Let's decompose further... Obviously it is not for the good of their employees. The non-exempt workers will be "left behind" (fired). They mention cost of labor too, so I doubt the employees leaving are going to make more money. So, worse schools, disruption of their kids' lives, hotter summers. I wonder what percentage will actually make the move????
Quote:
20. Mercedes will be realizing a massive savings by moving to Fulton County. Boyd estimated that Mercedes will cut operations cost north of 20 percent with the move. The savings come largely in the form of lower costs in labor, property taxes, energy, construction –- and it's in the tens of millions. Multiple news outlets have reported that the incentive package in Georgia is worth as much as $50 million.
OK so the GA taxpayers are kicking in $50M worth of "equivalents" in the deal, and MB is paying a reported $93M for new facilities. But they will save 20%. Wow, that's some numbers. I guess they'll can more employees to hire lower wage folks to get those savings.
Quote:
$916,700. Mercedes-Benz paid $916,700 in property taxes last year on its sprawling 37-acre campus in Montvale. The high property taxes in New Jersey aren't just a problem for residential homeowners –- corporations are looking for relief on their quarterly bills, too. In Georgia, the company will likely receive abatements though details have not yet been made public.
So, we saw from before that GA taxes are around 1/2 of NJ. The property is cheaper too, given that other figures I saw indicated that GA housing costs are about 80% of the national average.
But once the abatements expire, there still will be a tax bill, and I suspect that it will still be many hundreds of thousands a year.
Quote:
207. Nearly 1,000 flights originate out of 207 gates in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport each day, making it the busiest airport in the United States. Frequent direct flights to Frankfurt, near the company's global headquarters in Stuttgart, are no doubt a big part of the appeal. Quick access to the shipping port in Brunswick, G.A. and the manufacturing plant in Alabama were also key factors in leaving New Jersey.
Wonderful. As mentioned, ATL isn't anywhere near MY favorite airports to fly to/from. But it is one of the largest in the world.
I don't buy that HQ being close to a shipping port is important, because Robbinsville is where the spare parts repository is and that isn't moving. Any freight goes to AL, not ATL, so that's a weak one to me. And the plant in AL is still a time zone and well over a hundred miles away... Yet no better flights and an annoying car drive (I used to drive from ATL into AL all the time, and know the I85 well).
I still come back to my original premise. Im sure they can do better than NJ, Im sure they can save money moving elsewhere, but Im just not seeing how/why ATL is a good choice compared to elsewhere... That's just me.
