Toyota to add safety test unit to U.S. site

YORK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) Toyota Motor Corp. will add a $ 37 million safety testing facility to its planned technical center south of Ann Arbor, the automaker said Thursday.

Company spokeswoman Cynthia Mahalak said the safety facility would add 16,200 sq. meters to the previously announced 31,500-sq.-meter technical center, bringing the total investment in the 276-hectare site to $ 187 million.

Toyota plans to break ground at the site in Washtenaw County next Friday.

Mahalak said details on the safety testing facility will be announced at the groundbreaking. She said she did not know whether it will include crash test facilities.

About 400 new jobs will be created at the site by 2010, and 127 people already have been hired, Mahalak said.

Toyota already designs safety systems in Ann Arbor, where it employs 744 people.

The new site will serve as a second campus for Toyota's North American engineering, vehicle development and research.

Toyota Technical Center USA, a Toyota subsidiary, purchased the land for the center from the state of Michigan for $ 11 million.

The sale had been challenged in court by an Oakland County developer. DPG-York LLC had offered more money than Toyota, but the courts ruled the state could consider other factors in the sale.