The announcement came prior to the city council meeting Thursday at the Municipal Building. During the meeting the council approved conveyance of a 317-acre tract to the company for the plant as part of negotiations.
According to city officials, Gulf States Toyota, based in Houston, will invest at least $50 million in phase one of the new facility, which will serve as a centralized location for receiving, accessorizing and distributing Toyota and Scion vehicles in the five-state Gulf States Toyota region composed of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi.
“This is a fabulous day in the city of Temple, Texas,” Temple Mayor Bill Jones III said in making the announcement.
“A lot of people have worked very hard for a number of months to bring this project to fruition,” Jones said, singling out Temple Economic Develo-pment Corporation, Reinvest-ment Zone Number One and city staff members.
“It’s a premier example of what ‘team Temple’ is all about,” he said.
Gary Cole, director of transformation integration at the private Houston company, said the company would build a modern facility that will process thousands of cars in its first year.
The timeline calls for master planning to begin in early 2008, with groundbreaking in 2009. The center would be completed and in operation in 2011.
“The facility we will be building here will be a state-of-the-art facility with a start-up associate number of 250,” he said. “We will be processing and accessorizing about 100,000 vehicles in that first year and that will grow to many more over the years.”
Company officials said the center would be phase one of a project that could eventually double in size.
The first phase of the project will consist of a 100-acre site holding 230,000 square feet of buildings.
The center will be the second one in the Gulf States company.
According to Michael Owen, vice president for vehicle processing with Gulf States, the company expects the Temple plant to eventually be bigger than the center in Houston, which employs about 600 people and is undergoing expansion.
All of the Gulf States officials and Temple city officials agreed that the presence of rail service in the city’s industrial zone and the efforts the city and the TEDC and the reinvestment zone have put into building up “shovel-ready” sites in the industrial area were key to the company’s decision to locate in Temple.
“We looked at 20 different cities,” Owen said.
“What sealed the deal,” he said, “Was that Temple had a total responsibility solution. Rail. They had the physical ground. They had the infrastructure and potential employees,” he said. “Rail is absolutely key. It is the essence of our business.”
He said all of the vehicles brought to Temple for work would arrive by train. The site is served by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe main rail yard.
Lee Peterson, president of the Temple Economic Development Corporation, agreed that rail service to the area was key to the deal.
“Most of the negotiations revolved around the infrastructure, what it was going to be and when it was going to be in place,” he said. “We are putting major infrastructure there for them to be able to use on that site… so it was very important to them how it all lays out,” he added.
“It’s just a wonderful opportunity for Temple,” he said. “These guys are great corporate citizens. They will be involved in the community in many, many ways.”
The city of Temple in the past years has been investing $21 million through the Reinvestment zone preparing “shovel ready” sites at Airport Park at Central Pointe, Biotech Park at Central Pointe, Rail Park at Central Pointe and Southeast Industrial Park.
The figure includes $15 million in rail park developments and improvements, according to city officials.
Jonathan Graham, Temple city attorney, said the basic agreement calls for the city and TEDC to convey the land to the company and construct improvements. Gulf States would construct the plant on the site and show intent to construct phase 2 of the project.
In addition to conveying the 317 acres of land, part of which would be used for possible expansion and possible future incentive deals, the city would construct rail improvements, improve several roads in the area, install water, waste water and gas lines to the area and construct a storm water detention site on city-owned property east of the Gulf States site.
Graham said the improvements would ultimately benefit the entire Central Pointe Park.
Gary Schmidt, immediate past chairman of the TEDC, was credited for being one of the original negotiators in the project in his role last year as chairman of TEDC.
“This is certainly the result of an effort on the part of many people,” he said. “Gulf State’s decision to come to Temple is certainly due in part to the investment we as a community are making to economic development, specifically the $21 million that the community is investing to improve our industrial parks.”
Temple City Manager David Blackburn said the company’s investment will have a lasting impact on the economy and could be earned back in ten years.
“The overall economic impact of the capital investment … for the five taxing entities that make up Bell County on just a $50 million investment is about $1.5 million annually in returns,” he said.
He added that the figure was “a very conservative estimate,” not taking into account improvements and investments that will benefit other companies locating in the industrial parks as well as the additional families that would be drawn to the city.
The center would receive via rail all 17 vehicle line series that Toyota markets and sells at the facility, according to Gulf States officials. Outgoing vehicles would be trucked out.
Gulf States serves 148 Toyota dealers in 150 outlets in its region, according to company information.
rstinson@temple-telegram.com
