Gov. Bevin: Kentucky will pursue $1.6B Mazda-Toyota factory, up to 4,000 jobs

Gov. Matt Bevin said this week that the state of Kentucky intends to make a major push to land a $1.6 billion manufacturing facility planned by automakers Toyota and Mazda.

Bevin told a group of automotive suppliers and industry officials gathered in Lexington on Monday that the state will pursue the proposed factory and mentioned a 1,550-acre site in Glendale, Kentucky, as a prime location.

"Why shouldn't it be here?" Bevin said.

Japanese makers Toyota and Mazda announced last Friday that their companies will launch a joint venture with a facility in the U.S. that will produce the top-selling Toyota Corolla and a Mazda crossover vehicle starting in 2021.

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Neither company has suggested a location for the new factory, but the facility and the potential for it to generate 4,000 jobs is expected to set off a bidding war between states. Toyota's only U.S. factory for Corolla production opened five years ago in Blue Springs, Mississippi. Mazda has no American facilities.

Some auto analysts have suggested that Mississippi has an inside track because it's a Southern state with available acreage near the existing Corolla production.

In Kentucky, officials point to the success of the 8 million square-foot Toyota plant at Georgetown, where the company committed $1.3 billion earlier this year to upgrade and modernize the facility.

It now employs about 8,000 people, but research commissioned by Toyota this year calculated that the factory supports nearly 30,000 jobs from parts suppliers and other indirect and spin-off investment. To aid the investment, Kentucky committed more than $40 million in incentives.

In his remarks at the Kentucky Automotive Industry Association's annual Autovision Conference, Bevin said that he thinks the state has an advantage because Toyota is the dominant partner in the joint venture with Mazda and its largest facility is in Georgetown.

Bevin added that it's likely that the entire region will get a hard look from the two companies because of the presence of suppliers and automotive manufacturing in Kentucky and the broader region. "We're the buckle of that belt" of manufacturing, he said.

The governor didn't specify what kind of package Kentucky might put together, but he said he expects other states will compete aggressively. "I say, 'Giddy up,'" he said.

Reporter Grace Schneider can be reached at 502-582-4082 or gschneider@courier-journal.com.