“We had a planning number of around 60 percent, so if this holds up, it could mean we would have 3,000 people moving here and another 1,000 new jobs to be filled,” Lentz said from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Of course you know that the Japan-based automaker is building a new North American headquarters in west Plano, and has already completed a plan for the headquarters. Now it’s time to poll who is coming and who is staying.
I saw the campus just before New Year’s, and it is coming along. The campus should be complete by February 2017, with 2 million square feet of commercial space that will cost somewhere north of $350 million, according to Lentz.
One of the D Magazines recently ran an interesting piece where they interviewed a handful (5) of relocating Toyota employees already here. The responses were pretty brief, and it was charming to hear one woman say she loved our steaks. I would love to ask more about our housing stock knowing California housing like I do, so… hmmm. What was so interesting was that most of the transplants are moving north — McKinney, Plano, Frisco. One went to Southlake, only one went south of LBJ to Uptown. Has Dallas lost the luster?
Meantime, I’ve heard one of the top brass bought in Vaquero, Westlake, while most are just loving Plano. What have you heard? Are you working with any Toyota transplants?