Daimler Chrysler officially opened its doors Tuesday to the new Mercedes-Benz warehouse on New Canton Way. Officially called the Mercedes-Benz USA Regional Master Parts Distribution Center, the nearly 460,000-square-foot warehouse sits on 68 acres near the Allentown border. The warehouse represents a huge ratable for Washington, where residential growth has far exceeded commercial development in recent years.

The distribution center sits in Washington's newly designated foreign trade zone. Companies in the zone, which goes into effect this month, pay lower tariffs for imports, which Mercedes-Benz executives called a huge plus in deciding to build here.

"When we looked for a location we wanted to be close to an airport, close to the harbor and near an urban center ... Robbinsville proved to be ideal," said Klaus Ulkann, the company's vice president of customer services.

Mercedes-Benz warehouse employees were on-hand to explain their jobs and how the massive amount of parts is distributed. The employees demonstrated how a part is electronically tagged and organized using the one-and-a-half miles of conveyor belts that stretch up to three levels in some areas of the warehouse. The parts are shipped via air or road to more than 100 East Coast dealers and four other distribution centers.

The Washington center, which replaced an older one in Baltimore, is being touted as Mercedes-Benz's premiere warehouse in the world. It will house slow-moving parts so that the other four centers spread around the U.S. can hold items more in demand like air filters. Washington's center will have less sought-out parts because there is more room there than in other factories.