One the top employers in Columbus, Toyota, is expanding its Material Handling facility.
The $96 million project will manufacture electric forklifts and will be built on a 65-acre lot across from its existing site off I-65 South.
Governor Eric Holcomb stood on the lot with Toyota Material Handling Executive Brett Wood, Greater Columbus Economic Development Corporation President Jason Hester, President and CEO of Toyota Material Handling Bill Finerty, and Senior Vice President of Operations for Toyota Material Handling North America Tony Miller.
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The group stood in line and shoveled dirt, signifying the facility's groundbreaking, which is set to be operational in 2026.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation committed up to $1.1 million dollars in conditional tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants for Toyota’s Material Handling Facility plans.
Holcomb said these investments are meant to help grow state and city bottom lines.
“Our Indiana Economic Development Corporation negotiates and they're all performance based in terms of our incentives,” he said. “And then the local community deals with tax abatements per what they feel is appropriate to ultimately grow.”
Columbus City council approved Toyota’s requests for 10-year real and personal property tax abatements on the local expansion.
The facility expansion will create more than 80 new jobs with an average wage of $28.88 per hour in manufacturing. As of March, more than 19,000 people in Columbus worked in manufacturing, according to federal data.
