Toyota is moving ahead with plans to create a research and development facility in Henrietta. It will work to develop batteries, fuel cells and other technologies.
The R&D center being buiilt on Jefferson Road and it is a project from Toyota Material Handling North America and its subsidiary, the Raymond Corporation, which is located near Binghamton.
As WXXI News first reported last December, the new operation is geared toward looking at energy storage solutions for products like forklifts.
It is expected to create up to 40 jobs.
Leah George VanScott, is EVP of Business Development and Strategy of Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE), one of the local organizations who worked on getting the new facility built in this region.
She said that among the advantages Toyota saw with locating in the Rochester area was the kind of workforce they could tap into.
“(It) really was that availability of experienced alternative energy engineers, as well as the pipeline of engineering talent coming out of our 19 colleges and universities,” said George VanScott. “And that access to existing infrastructure and the ecosystem that’s already in place.”
The state is assisting this project with up to $1.5 million in tax credits, and GRE and Monroe County’s economic development arm, COMIDA, is also assisting.
A statement issued Tuesday by Empire State Development said that Toyota expects to begin prep work at the site in Henrietta immediately and be operational at that new testing center in the spring.
