12:14pm | The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Monday gave the go ahead to a $240 million, 20-year lease renewal with Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., keeping a major hub for one of the world’s largest automakers right here in Southern California.
The new lease, which contains several environmental initiatives, would keep Toyota at its Pier B facilities until the end of 2028. The lease is retroactive to January 1, 2009.
Toyota occupies about 144 acres in the northern portion of the Port near Pier B Street where it receives between 200,000 and 300,000 Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles imported from Japan each year. Toyota first became a Port tenant in 1981. The last long-term lease was signed in 1990 and expired in 2006. The company has been on interim leases since.
The new lease calls for yearly rent of about $10 million and requires Toyota to take measures that will decrease air pollution related to its operations, including the use of cleaner fuel by its car carrying vessels. Also, by 2014, virtually all of the trucks that transport the vehicles out of the terminal will have to comply with strict emission standards; similar to what is already required of most trucks servicing the Port’s container terminals under the Clean Trucks Program.
Other requirements include the use of energy efficient design on any large buildings constructed on their premises.
The Board voted for renewal of the lease at the committee level on Monday. The full Board is expected to approve the motion when it meets again next month.
The Port of Long Beach is the second largest seaport in the U.S. Although it is a public entity, it does not rely on taxes to operate. The Port’s budget is supported mostly by income from terminal leases and existing reserves.