FULLERTON, Calif.—Yokohama Tire Corp. has selected Kajima Associates/Architects & Engineers P.C. of Atlanta to design the first phase of the truck tire plant it plans to build in West Point, Miss.
Selecting the design firm is the first concrete step in the timetable to have the $300 million, 931,000-sq.-ft. plant operational by October 2015, Fullerton-based Yokohama said.
Kajim Associates will design production, warehousing and operations facilities, the tire maker said, with construction slated to begin this summer.
When operational, the factory will have a manufacturing capacity of up to 1 million tires annually, Yokohama said, with 500 employees in the initial phase.
"We planned for the project to take on a brisk pace, and we are extremely pleased it is progressing as scheduled," said Thomas Masuguchi, Yokohama's senior vice president and chief strategy officer.
"The demand for Yokohama's commercial tire products is outpacing our current production capacity, and the faster we move along the plant's timeline, the faster we can increase our supply to meet our dealer requirements. We are confident that Kajima Associates … will provide us with design plans for the factory that are aimed at optimum productivity and efficiency."
Yoshi Koshiyama, design director for Kajima Associates, said the firm looks forward "to being a partner in translating Yokohama's strategic vision for their new plant to reality by providing extensive services from building information modeling to structural and interior design."