Toyota Taps KDC to Develop North American HQ in Plano, Texas

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Toyota Motor Co. has selected KDC Real Estate Development & Investments, of Dallas, to develop its new North American headquarters campus in the new Legacy West development in Plano, Texas, KDC announced Thursday.

The new headquarters will consolidate about 2,000 employees from Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. in Torrance, Calif.; about 1,000 from Toyota Financial Services, also in Torrance; a further 1,000 employees from Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., in Erlanger, Ky.; and a smaller number from Toyota Motor North America in New York City.

Toyota recently finalized the purchase of the site and expects to begin occupying the campus in late 2016 or early 2017.

A KDC spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive that no contractor or architect has yet been selected, nor has a date been set to break ground.

CPE reported in late April that Toyota was planning on consolidating its various headquarters in Plano and that KDC appeared to be the project’s likely developer.

JLL represented Toyota in its national search for a new headquarters site, through a team led by Meredith O’Connor and Michael Sessa in Chicago and Paul Whitman and Brad Selner in Dallas.

It was only three weeks ago that the City of Plano approved the approximately 240-acre Legacy West development, which consists of so-far-unused land around the JC Penney corporate headquarters campus and down the street from the Legacy Town Center retail mall. An unconfirmed figure of $2 billion has been put to the Legacy West project as a whole.

The Toyota campus is across the street from where FedEx Office will also have a new headquarters.

In addition to its national experience, KDC has been involved in a number of large CRE projects in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, including an “urban village” of office, retail and residences currently under development in Legacy West near the 100-acre Toyota headquarters site.