Nissan Motor Co. will receive nearly $197 million in tax breaks and other benefits to move its North American headquarters to Tennessee from Gardena, Bloomberg News reported.

The headquarters will move to the Williamson County suburb of Franklin, 15 miles southwest of Nashville, to take advantage of lower real estate and business taxes.

The most substantial part of the incentives would be the annual tax credits of $5,000 per employee for 20 years. Nissan, which is building a $70 million headquarters in Franklin, also will be reimbursed as much as $64 million, or about $50,000 a worker, for costs of moving employees from California. The headquarters may generate $527 million a year in revenue for the state, Bloomberg said.

The first employees those working in sales, marketing, product development and planning will begin moving from Gardena to Tennessee next June. Nissan currently employs about 1,300 people at its North American headquarters campus. They will be positioned in Nashville offices until Nissan finishes its Franklin complex in 2008.

Moving Nissan’s headquarters to Franklin will put it closer to the company’s $2.1 billion vehicle assembly plant and purchasing division in nearby Smyrna, Tenn., where 6,700 employees are located. Another 1,300 employees work at a powertrain assembly plant in Decherd, Tenn.