Toyota's Toa Baja distribution center gets a $55 million expansion; the industrial lot next door sold for $9 million in March
Toyota de Puerto Rico will put more than $55 million into expanding and modernizing its Vehicle and Parts Distribution Center at Carretera 865 Km 4.9, Candelaria, Toa Baja, under a multiyear program that runs to 2031, El Vocero reported on October 21, 2026. The work adds about 30,000 square feet to the parts area, upgrades the areas where vehicles are received and dispatched, and brings in inventory-handling technology.
The center today
The center opened on August 13, 2008, with an initial investment of $43 million to centralize Toyota's logistics for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the outlet said. It has about 100,000 square feet of space, holds close to 400,000 parts and accessories, and receives, inspects and prepares more than 35,000 new vehicles a year. About 200 people work there, with another 150 in corporate offices and about 1,100 at dealerships. Company executives told the outlet that the parts and accessories business approaches $100 million a year and that 97% of parts ordered in Puerto Rico reach dealers within 24 hours.
The site and its permit file
The center sits on two light-industry properties in Barrio Candelaria: 119,847 m2, about 1.29 million square feet or 30.5 cuerdas, on Carretera 865, and 24,425 m2 on Calle Principal Km 4.9. Both are classed as urban land and lie outside the FEMA flood hazard area.
The expansion has been in the permit file since 2023 under the name "Toyota de Puerto Rico - Parts and Vehicles Distribution Center Facilities Expansion". The filings place the parts warehouse at the west end of the lot and the vehicle yard on the rest, and set out four phases of work, starting with repaving and new storm drainage on Lots 3 and 4, about 30,000 m2 of new-vehicle parking at the east end. The environmental compliance determination was approved on April 7, 2024, and the consolidated construction permit on October 1, 2025, with 11,134 m2 of built area. A use permit for vehicle, parts and accessories distribution, lubricant imports, warehousing and offices with 122 parking spaces was approved on September 10, 2026.
What comes next
A further consolidated construction permit application for the expansion has been in inspection since September 18, 2026.
Industrial property around the center
One industrial sale was recorded within 1 km of the center in the 12 months to October 22, 2026, and it was the largest of the 33 sales in that radius: an 18,070 m2 light-industry property at 865 Carretera Industrial, 456 m away, sold for $9,000,000 on March 24, 2026, about $498 per square meter of land. The same property had sold for $4,650,000 in December 2019, so its price rose 94% in a little over six years.
In July 2026, two mortgages of $22.3 million and $22.4 million were recorded nine days apart on a 10,350 m2 light-industry property at 618 Calle Bambu in Candelaria, 1.5 km from the Toyota site, which had sold for $8,000,000 in June 2021.
What industrial space asks in Toa Baja
Eight warehouse or industrial properties were listed for sale in Toa Baja on October 22, 2026. The closest to the center, a 2,323 m2 building on a 7,861 m2 lot at Carretera 2 Km 21.1 in Candelaria, asks $3,500,000, about $1,507 per square meter of building. A 2,415 m2 commercial building in Barrio Candelaria asks $2,500,000; a 6,639 m2 industrial building on 29,679 m2 south of Km 17.5 of PR-2, 1.3 km away, asks $3,800,000; and a 55,482 m2 industrial site at Km 2.9 of PR-865 asks $3,250,000, about $59 per square meter of land. For rent, a 1,045 m2 warehouse in Candelaria about 540 m from the center asks $8,000 a month and a 1,394 m2 warehouse at Carretera 2 Km 17.0 asks $13,500.
