Toyota is making big leaps in Corporate America with the development of a technical center expansion in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as well as bringing a new headquarters to Plano, Texas from its previous location in Torrance, California. The Japanese auto-manufacturing company has dropped $126 million on the expansion of the tech center alone and will consist of a prototype development building, a supplier center building, and a powertrain development facility on the Ann Arbor Township Campus.

A basic outline (literally) of where the new building will be placed.

Toyota is bringing in as many as 85 engineering employees from California to fill some spots, as well as putting together purchasing groups, design teams, and supplier partners to boost efficiency, productivity, and creating some much appreciated job growth.

“The expansion of this campus is a key element of Toyota’s ongoing unification of our North American operations,” said Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz in a statement. “Investments here in Michigan will intensify Toyota’s engineering, product development, and procurement capabilities. The impact of this will be felt by our customers through improved quality, adoption of new technologies, and greater value of the vehicles we produce.”

On top of the celebratory announcement for its expansion of the technical center, Toyota donated three Tundra pickup trucks to the local fire departments. The center is expected to be completed by 2016 and already has upwards of 1,200 employees working onsite at its current facilities in Michigan, with more expected upon completion.

The auto industry has been experiencing a rapid recovery and expanding growth over the last few years, and the Japanese auto manufacturer pumping out big plans here in the States is a testament to that. Foreign cars or not, good guy Toyota is creating jobs and giving back to communities–that’s a better marketing strategy than any car commercial we’ve seen!