Daimler AG is moving down south, uprooting Mercedes-Benz USA’s headquarters from its longtime perch in New Jersey with plans to relocate it to an Atlanta suburb.

Wooed by lower costs, proximity to a Mercedes-Benz factory and government incentives, the German luxury car maker in July will begin moving about 1,000 U.S. personnel to a temporary facility and later move to Sandy Springs, Ga.

The operation, which includes staff working on the Sprinter van business and the Smart mini car lineup, will permanently move into a new building erected on a 10-acre site in the same city.

Daimler executives turned down a significant incentive package from New Jersey to keep its U.S. headquarters in Montvale, where it had been running operations since 1972. Now the second-largest luxury car brand in the U.S. behind BMW AG, Mercedes is joining several other auto makers to have moved operations and corporate headquarters to the South to take advantage of low union membership in right-to-work states, low corporate taxes and easy access to well-maintained highways, rail lines, ports and airports.

“We think the infrastructure in the States has changed,” Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in an interview on Tuesday. “The South is much more relevant than it used to be. We think it is like a new start, a rejuvenation of our company to make that move.”