Ten months after groundbreaking on Daimler Coaches North America’s new headquarters in West Jacksonville, the top executive for the company welcomed guests to a ceremonial opening of the facility Feb. 10.
“I cannot wait to move in with my team about two weeks from now,” said Dietrich Muller, CEO and president of the German-based company.
“It really is a dream for us that we are now making our own footprint into the United States of America and the state of Florida.”
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, Council member Chris Miller, Jacksonville Transportation Authority CEO Nat Ford and other city and community leaders attended a ribbon-cutting at the facility at 7215 Jones Branch Blvd.
In the two-story, 43,000-square-foot headquarters, the company will perform preinspection on Mercedes-Benz’s Tourrider Premium coach vehicles and outfit them with equipment required for operation in the U.S., such as wheelchair lifts required by the Americans for Disabilities Act.
The buses, manufactured in Turkey, will be shipped to the Port of Brunswick in Georgia and driven to Jacksonville for work in the facility at southwest Pritchard and Jones Branch roads, west of Interstate 295.
Muller said the company invested more than $100 million in development of the U.S.-specific Tourrider and construction of the new facility. He said there were 50 people in the organization, a number the company expects to grow.
Daimler Coaches North America hopes to sell 300 or more buses annually, Muller said. Most customers are bus operators who are hired by contractors who provide vacation tours, transportation for sports teams, airport shuttles and other services.
Asked to quote a price for a Tourrider, Muller demurred.
“It would be a major investment,” he said.
In remarks before the ribbon-cutting, Deegan said the headquarters were “a tribute to collaboration.”
“It’s what happens when a trusted global brand combines with one of America’s hottest job markets in a city that is committed to supporting companies that really do create limitless opportunities,” she said.
Muller said the building was awaiting some finishing touches, including installing an exterior sign with the Mercedes-Benz logo, but was 99% complete.
He said Daimler Coaches North America has rented facilities in the U.S., but made a “very important statement” in building the headquarters facility.
“We have come here to stay,” he said. “That’s a commitment. That’s a big one for us.”
In May 2025, the city approved a permit for ARCO Design/Build to construct the $15.47 million, 43,000-square-foot predelivery and service center. The two-story main building project included surface parking, utilities, roads and landscaping on the property at southwest Pritchard and Jones Branch roads, west of Interstate 295 and east of Imeson Road, near Westside Industrial Park.
The headquarters building includes a training room, office space, a break room, service office, service bays and more.
A 1,860-square-foot stand-alone maintenance/parts storage shed was permitted separately at a project cost of $200,000.
Brookwood Capital Partners and a North Carolina investor bought the 11.8-acre site in December 2024 for the Daimler Coach Jacksonville depot facility.
BCP Jacksonville LLC, part of Brookwood Capital Partners, and HB Prichard Road LLC, both of Raleigh, North Carolina, paid $4.9 million for the property. HB Prichard is affiliated with HB Daimler LLC.
Through Ordinance 2024-0723, the property was rezoned Planned Unit Development permitting outside storage, vehicle deliveries and washing in addition to commercial uses, including tractor-trailer storage.
Plans show the first floor with a main office, a training room, pallet storage, a service office and service bays.
A second story also has office space, a training room, a break room, storage and more, with part of the floor open to the first.
Daimler Coaches North America is the exclusive dealer of the Tourrider, a stainless-steel-framed 45-foot bus with such features as foldaway video screens and ambient LED lighting.
It is a coach-style vehicle, the type used by bus operators like Greyhound and by organizations, groups or companies.