Toyota's board made the decision Tuesday in Japan as the company released its financial results. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Toyota officials were to formally announce the plant today at a River Walk news conference.
San Antonio beat out Marion, AR and several other southern cities for the plant, which will be the Japanese vehicle maker's sixth in North America. It is to make the company's Tundra pickup trucks.
The city's real estate community has looked forward to the announcement for months. It is likely to jumpstart activity in the south submarket where the plant is to be built. The plant will bring with it numerous suppliers. The Texas Comptroller estimates the total economic impact will be 16,000 jobs, $1.8 billion in investment and $962 million in personal income once it runs at top production.
The impact is expected to reverberate throughout San Antonio's industrial, office, retail and multifamily markets. "It'll be one of the biggest economic drivers we've seen in San Antonio," says John Taylor, an industrial broker in the San Antonio office of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co.
Taylor tells GlobeSt.com that the project should absorb vacant industrial space that hasn't been suitable to typical distribution uses. Developers also could start on a round of speculative construction. Some Toyota subcontractors have been scouting the market for the past six months, he says.
"The consensus is that activity will increase, most immediately in land sales," says Kim Gatley, research director at REOC Partners. "We are already seeing increased interest in land investment in the south and southwest areas."
The impact could extend outside San Antonio if it leads investors to put the city on their radar screens. Walker says the strengthening of San Antonio's industrial sector should firm up the city's status as a secondary investment market, if not boost it to the first tier.Gatley concurs.
"I feel that the most promising potential for improvement in the local commercial real estate market will come as the result of other firms turning their attention to our city in light of the fact that Toyota, which is known as a well-managed company, has acknowledged all the benefits San Antonio has to offer," she tells GlobeSt.com.
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