In July of 2005, Toyota won a long, hard fought battle to build a research and development facility in York Township. York Township is in the Saline Area School District and also parts of Milan School District.
The battle was long due to a developer wanting to purchase the land and build more houses on it. However, the state of Michigan and yes, most of us in Real Estate also wanted to see the facility come here to off set some of the job losses in the state. Governor Jennifer Granholm fought hard to see the Toyota Research and Development Facility come to Michigan instead of Kentucky.
A package of about 38.9 million dollars in tax incentive was put together and Toyota bought the 690 acres in York Township. As a resident of Saline, many of the sellers were longing to see more people move into this area, to help with the sale of their homes and decrease some of the inventory.
On September 20, the Saline Chamber of Commerce sponsored an event at Stonebridge County Club and Bruce Brownlee, Sr. Executive of Administrator for external affairs for Toyota, spoke at the event. "It's not like we're bringing in a whole new group of people to the area. Most are already here", he said. There are currently 600 employees already located here at the temporary facility in Ann Arbor. Many of those have already bought homes in our area. We have sold to several Toyota employees that have relocated here the last couple of years.
Over 100 people turned out to hear Mr. Brownlee speak and hopes were soon dashed by the Realtors in attendance as they heard him say, "Toyota's move into Saline in York Township would not solve the housing problems that so many were looking for."
At one time, it was reported that the average weekly salary was expected to be close to 3000.00. Toyota Technical Center, or TCC LLC as we are fond of calling it was established in 1977 and is located in Ann Arbor. They have been responsible for developing and engineering the Toyota cars built in the U.S. Some of those cars include the Sienna, Camry, Solara and the Avalon. 
I am still excited Toyota is developing the land in York Township and I believe that the long term effect will be positive for the State of Michigan and the Saline area. Just not right away, like so many of us had hoped for.
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