LONG BEACH, CA—Mercedes Benz has broken ground on a 1.1-million-square-foot industrial facility at the former Boeing 717 manufacturing space in Long Beach, CA. The facility will house the car company's Western region vehicle preparation center and its learning and performance center.

Adjacent to the Long Beach Airport, the 52.2-acre lot has been vacant since 2006 when Boeing 717 facility closed. Mercedes Benz expects the facility to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2015. The new facility will support 82 dealerships across 12 states in the Western Region, which includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Utah, and is one of three regional office centers in the US. The vehicle prep and learning and performance centers were formerly located in Southern California, where MBUSA has been for the past 30 years.

According to Dietmar Exler, Mercedes Benz USA VP of sales, the company chose the facility location because of the car culture in Southern California, the clement weather and growth in the luxury market. The car company currently has an expanding sales volume that provided a necessity for this new facility. There is no information on the cost of the development project. MBUSA could not be reached for additional comment.

The news of a new, major car facility is good news considering Toyota's recent decision to move its North American headquarters offices from Torrance, CA to Dallas Texas. Toyota, which will move slowly over the next three years while a new facility is under development in Texas, occupies 2 million square feet of office space in 15 buildings.