Toyota Breaks Ground On $350M Texas Headquarters

by Cameron Aubernon

Published: January 21st, 2015

toyota breaks ground on 350m texas headquarters

With a little help from a 2015 TRD Pro Series Tundra and its plow, Toyota broke ground on its new $350 million headquarters in Plano, Texas.

Aside from the truck-assisted groundbreaking, the automaker also revealed a 10-foot-tall, 64-foot-wide “TOYOTA” installation during the ceremonies. Each letter held a Texan Yaupon Holly “wish tree,” all of which will be permanently planted once construction is completed. Local high school students were invited to tie handwritten wishes to the trees, as well; the notes will be placed in a time capsule to be buried on-site later on.

The new headquarters will be completed by early 2017 at the latest, and is located at the intersection of Headquarters Drive and Palomino Crossing. The groundbreaking marks the next phase in Toyota’s move to Texas from California, which began with the automaker’s announcement last year. Around 4,000 employees — half from California — are expected to call Texas home in the next couple of years.

#Groundbreakings #Plano #Relocations #Texas #Toyota

Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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12 of 34 comments

86er on Jan 21, 2015

All right, I guess I'll have to do it: Congratulations to Toyota and the State of Texas on this important investment in the North American auto industry.

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- Highdesertcat on Jan 21, 2015
  
  Amen!
  
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- VenomV12 on Jan 21, 2015
  
  "Investment in the North American auto industry"? Umm, it is not like they are just coming here, all they are doing is moving from one state in America to another, if anything they are contributing less to the North American economy because they are probably getting some nice fat tax incentives to do this deal. The reality is that Toyota has the midsize and small car market in North America locked up pretty good to the tune of hundreds of thousands of units a year if not millions, so now they are going after the nice, fat profitable, high volume pickup truck market and where better to do that than Texas. I already see a ton of Toyota trucks in North Dallas/Southern Oklahoma region when I am at my house down there so this will only propel more sales. If they could even just double their pickup truck sales in N.America it would be a massive windfall for them. Ford sells something like 700,000 F-150s a year and Chevy like 500,000 Silverados alone, a 100,000 here or there from each of those guys would be mighty tasty.
  
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- 86er on Jan 21, 2015
  
  @VenomV12 $350 million, whether one-time or ongoing, is no trifling (or quibbling) matter.
  
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- Darkwing on Jan 21, 2015
  
  @86er I was going to say it's more of an investment in the construction industry than in the automotive industry, but I guess that's also just a quibble (i.e. true).
  
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- George B on Jan 22, 2015
  
  @VenomV12 Venom, the primary reason Toyota is moving their headquarters from California to Plano, TX is to move employees closer to Toyota North American manufacturing in the Central and Eastern time zones. Easier to manage operations when people are at work at the same time. The California headquarters made sense when the American part of Toyota primarily imported cars from Japan, but today Toyota mostly builds cars here. The headquarters move suggests a commitment to North American manufacturing vs. importing cars from Asia. Toyota is making a long-term effort to get into the US pickup truck market. It's a slow learning process for them. I would guess that the Tundra will get better with so many decision makers relocated to a place where pickup trucks are very popular. However, Plano is more Lexus RX 350 than Toyota Tundra.
  
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Jhefner on Jan 21, 2015

"... is located at the intersection of Headquarters Drive and Palomino Crossing" Uh, I could not find this intersection in Google Maps. Is Palomino Crossing correct?

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- Corey Lewis on Jan 21, 2015
  
  If they broke ground just now, is the road necessarily complete/named/mapped? Google isn't instant.
  
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- Cameron Aubernon on Jan 22, 2015
  
  @Corey Lewis If it helps, WFAA-TV says the site is just west of Legacy Drive near Texas 121, with JCPenney nestled inside a circular drive.
  
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- George B on Jan 22, 2015
  
  @Cameron Aubernon The Toyota site is on the West side of Legacy Dr. between TX-121 and Headquarters. Until recently that land had horses on it.
  
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Jimbob457 on Jan 22, 2015

There ain't no sanity clause. Compared to Southern California, some things are better, others worse. PRO 1. Big increase in real disposable income - no state income tax, housing is a lot cheaper, and so are most other things you buy. 2. Traffic is better, and commutes are shorter. 3. Easy to fit in. Half your neighbors will be recent immigrants as well. 4. Good airline connections with occasional deals. 5. Texas is a debtors haven. 6. Texas has no alimony, only child support. CON 1. Summers are hotter than Hell. Winters can get fairly cold. 2. No beach or mountains 3. Little in the way of weekend getaways by car. 4. You will tend to gradually lose contact (to some degree) with friends and relatives in California. It is a long way away.

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Seth1065 on Jan 22, 2015

I assume this will be good for Texas , more jobs to build the hq, new sub divisons ... , the tax money would have been blown somewhere anyway, should help the collages w another big company to hire the grads, does anyone know if the calf employees will keep the same wages, that would be a huge windfall for them. I have been to Plano , not my cup of tea but I like tall trees and old houses and it seems Plano has very few of them, but you can not beat the cost of living compared to calf

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