We got it, Toyota.
Monday, January 1 1996
What will be the impact of the $700 million truck-assembly plant that's coming to Southwest Indiana?
Toyota Motor Corp.'s decision to locate a $700 million truck plant near Evansville will have implications far beyond the region, economic-development officials say.
The Toyota plant could be the magnet that draws new auto-part supplier plants to the Hoosier state. Its presence also could mean new business for Indiana's existing automotive firms. It might strengthen the case for an Evansville-to-Indianapolis highway. And it's one more economic-development feather for community leaders to wear as they try to lure even more companies.
The Japanese automaker announced recently that it would build its fourth U.S. plant on U.S. 41 in southern Gibson County near Princeton, about 15 miles north of Evansville. The company said location was a key factor, with the site being close to Interstate 64 and the company's automobile plant in Georgetown, Ky.
The plant will open in 1998 or early 1999 and employ 1,300 workers at first to make Toyota's full-size T100 pickup track. The jobs will pay $19 or so per hour, one of the highest production salaries in the area. Says Gov. Evan Bayh, "These are the kinds of jobs that will enable Hoosiers to buy homes, send their children to college and attain the American dream."
It certainly was a dream come true for the people of Southwest Indiana, many of whom in the past have felt that their region has been slighted by state economic-development officials in competition for manufacturing sites. "It's going to be the biggest thing that ever happened in any of our lifetimes," says Roger Myers, president of the Gibson County Board of Commissioners.
"Toyota is no stranger to Indiana," Toyota President Hiroshi Okuda said at the November announcement in Princeton, referring to the company's forklift plant in Columbus, which opened in 1990. "We have learned from our experience in Columbus that Indiana and Toyota make a great combination."
A WIDE IMPACT
The impact of the Toyota truck plant is likely to stretch far beyond the Gibson County line. One of the first potential ripple effects could be in the suburban Indianapolis community of Greenfield, where a Toyota parts supplier named Aoyama is considering building a factory. Also likely to benefit are the Southern Indiana communities along I-64, the transportation link that connects the Indiana Toyota site with the automaker's assembly plant in Georgetown, Ky.
