Mercedes Moving Headquarters to Costa Mesa

The Southern California regional office of Mercedes-Benz is moving to Costa Mesa from the Art Deco building that it owns in Hollywood.

Mercedes-Benz has signed a 10-year lease for 10,000 square feet of space in Costa Mesa’s 21-story Center Tower, the tallest building in Orange County. “We decided that Costa Mesa is really a center point for us and it is close to the airport,” said Robert J. Wills, vice president of Mercedes-Benz North America Los Angeles Region. “We are as dependent on Los Angeles County as we are on Orange County--so it was more of a location perspective.”

The new office will oversee the western region, which includes Guam and Hawaii, and the area from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Wills said the company is negotiating with a firm interested in buying the round silver Hollywood building that a Mercedes-Benz dealership had occupied for more than 40 years. The dealership closed in 1995 and the regional headquarters has occupied the space.

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Debora Vrana covers real estate for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5979 and at debora.vrana@latimes.com