Toyota dedicates new tech center in Michigan, 2nd Ld-Writethru

YORK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) _ Toyota Motor Corp. formally opened a new engineering and safety testing facility near Ann Arbor on Thursday, bringing 400 badly needed jobs to an area hard-hit by auto industry layoffs.

About 300 workers have been moving into the buildings for the past couple of months, and the Japanese automaker expects to add another 100 jobs by 2010, with the potential for hundreds more in the future.

The new $187 million, 530,000-square-foot complex supplements Toyota's existing technical center near Ann Arbor, about 30 miles west of Detroit. The company now employs about 1,000 workers at both complexes.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said the expansion is an important piece of the state's plan to diversify its economy, which has added high-tech jobs after losing more than 315,000 manufacturing positions since mid-2000.

General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have long dominated employment in Southeast Michigan and are losing billions of dollars and shedding workers by the thousands. But despite tough times, development of next-generation vehicles will continue to be a part of the state's economic future, Granholm said.

"It's all going to happen right here in Michigan, and that's what this tech center represents," she said.

Toyota has been doing research in Southeast Michigan for more than 30 years, and the Avalon sedan and Solara coupe were both designed in the state. The new complex, on the site of a former state mental hospital, will design and engineer vehicles unique to North America and has a safety testing center for crash tests.

Bruce Brownlee, senior executive administrator at the technical center, said the expansion is a sign of Toyota's commitment to Michigan and North America.

He acknowledged the auto industry is going through tough times. Toyota posted a 32 percent drop in U.S. sales in September as monthly sales industrywide fell below 1 million for the first time in 15 years.

"It will probably last a little while, but we are hopeful for the future," Brownlee said.

The state went through contortions to land the center, including a business tax credit for Toyota worth $38.9 million over the next 20 years. Local governments and a school district also gave partial tax abatements.

It took an act of the Legislature in 2004 for the state to sell the land to Toyota for $11 million, and Michigan had to fend off a lawsuit from a developer who outbid Toyota by $16 million at the height of the area's housing boom.

Granholm has said the state will see a net tax gain of $60 million over the next two decades from the center, which she says is an example of Michigan's future economy.

"Our reputation as the automotive capital of the world brought Toyota here, and we will continue to attract R&D and advanced manufacturing jobs because of our global leadership in automotive research and development," she said in a statement.

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