Toyota to Move Mexico Truck Production to San Antonio

Just months after filing applications at the Texas Comptroller’s office, Toyota has made its expansion official. The automaker will invest $3.6 billion, up from the initial reports of $2 billion, to grow its San Antonio campus by 2.5 million square feet, doubling its footprint in the market by 2030.

The expansion, dubbed Project Orca, includes a new vehicle assembly line to support production of the Tacoma truck, bringing back the car’s manufacturing to San Antonio after Toyota moved it to Baja California in Mexico earlier this decade. The firm already produces the Tundra and Sequoia pickups in San Antonio.

Toyota chose San Antonio after a competitive process. Notably, the company obtained tax breaks valued at $122 million from the city and another $55.3 million from Bexar County, as reported by the San Antonio Express-News. Toyota also secured $20 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund and further financing from the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation program.

---

READ ALSO: What Amazon’s Supply-Chain Push Means for Industrial

---

Toyota’s property spans 2,000 acres at 1 Lone Star Pass in San Antonio’s southern submarket. It includes a 2.2 million-square-foot plant and a $531 million, 500,000-square-foot rear-axle facility project that is slated to turn operational this year.

The automaker’s investment in the market will reach $8.3 billion, including Project Orca, which is slated to create 2,000 new jobs and bring the campus’ total workforce to 6,000. Toyota broke ground on its first San Antonio plant in 2003.

Manufacturers boost San Antonio’s industrial pipeline

San Antonio had 2.7 million square feet of industrial space underway as of March, according to a CBRE report. Toyota’s Orca Project would nearly double the market’s pipeline when construction kicks off. First-quarter industrial deliveries clocked in at nearly 220,000 square feet.

The South and Northeast San Antonio submarkets were most active in March, with a pipeline of 1.5 million square feet and 1.1 million square feet, respectively. Toyota’s rear-axle facility and a 1 million-square-foot JCB manufacturing facility consisted of nearly the entire South pipeline.