Construction began a few months ago on the $225 million Toyota Boshoku manufacturing facility in Hopkinsville, but local and state officials organized a ceremonial groundbreaking event Wednesday afternoon to recognize the company’s investment.
“This is truly about opportunities” for the company, the community and future workers, said Carter Hendricks, executive director of the South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council.
Toyota Boshoku — which makes interior, filtration and powertrain components for the automotive industry — is building its facility on 48 acres in South Park off Fort Campbell Boulevard about 3 miles north of Interstate 24. It will employ 157 workers. The company projects the 365,400-square-foot facility will be operational in 2025.
Gov. Andy Beshear and Masayoshi Shirayanagi, president and CEO of Toyota Boshoku Corp., attended Wednesday’s ceremony at the James E. Bruce Convention Center.
“Yes, we’ve been known for a long time for our bourbon, for our horse racing and for our hospitality, but now we are known for advanced manufacturing,” said Beshear.
“For so long, we were looking at our neighbors, jealous of them,” he said. “Well, let me tell you, every state around us right now is jealous of Kentucky. For the first time I can remember they are looking at us and they are saying, ‘Kentucky, Western Kentucky, how are you doing it?’”
Turning to Christian County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam and Hopkinsville Mayor James R. Knight Jr., the governor said, “Judge, mayor, I hope you do what I do. Look back at them and say, ‘We’re not telling you.’”
Last week, Ascend Elements and a South Korea-based partner, SK ecoplant, and its recycling subsidiary, TES, announced plans to build a $65 million lithium-ion battery recycling facility at Hopkinsville’s Commerce Park II. The 100,000-square-foot plant will create about 60 jobs and supply material to Ascend Element’s $1 billion facility currently under construction, also at Commerce Park II.
Company officials said Toyota Boshoku’s Hopkinsville plant will be a “smart manufacturing facility” with advanced robotics and automation that is designed to streamline work and reduce waste.
“I love the idea of a facility being a smart facility because we are a smart community,” said Gilliam. “There is not better fit than to have Toyota Boshoku here in Christian County.”
Knight presented a plaque with keys of the city and county to Shirayanagi.
Beshear’s office originally announced in March that Toyota Boshoku had selected a site in Hopkinsville. A state package of tax incentives approved early this year requires the company to pay an average hourly wage of $40, including benefits, across 157 full-time jobs.
Erlanger in North Kentucky is the U.S. headquarters for Toyota Boshoku America, which has 13,000 employees in 22 locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. It is a division of Toyota Boshoku Corp., which has operations in Japan, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
