The Farmington Hills site once conceived as the headquarters for the Little Caesars pizza chain will instead be the new home of a major automaker's financial arm in the United States.

Olympia Development of Michigan, the Ilitch family's development company, will move forward with plans for a new three-story building that will allow the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA LLC to stay in Farmington Hills after its current lease expires.

Mercedes-Benz Financial will exclusively will lease space in the complex, which will support nearly 1,000 jobs there and also serve as Daimler Mobility Americas' regional headquarters.

The company will move less than a mile from 36455 Corporate Drive to the 35-acre site on the southwest corner of Drake and 12 Mile roads that Detroit-based Olympia Development has owned for more than 30 years.

The 200,000-square-foot complex will offer an "open environment" as well as a fitness center, cafe and coffee bar, according to a news release. The project also will have an onsite walking and jogging path and will preserve the woodlands and wetlands currently there.

Construction on the building will begin in the fall, with completion projected for the summer of 2021.

Architecture firm Gensler's Detroit office is designing the building, and Troy-based Kirco Manix will be general contractor.

bnoble@detroitnews.com