Elk Grove annexes key acreage, closes in on deal to bring tractor giant Kubota to city
Elk Grove has annexed a key parcel that officials say moves the city closer to drawing international tractor giant Kubota and attracting more businesses — and the workers they employ.
Elk Grove and Kubota Tractor Co. officials met again Friday in what Elk Grove City Manager Jason Behrmann described as “final discussions” to bring the conglomerate and some 300 jobs to the city from its present west region headquarters in nearby Lodi.
“They’re excited,” Berhmann said Thursday of Kubota officials, adding that Elk Grove’s annexation of 390 acres at Grant Line and Waterman roads east of Highway 99, was a “requirement” for Kubota to move forward with the deal.
Sacramento Local Area Formation Committee members approved the annexation June 2 and will become effective in the coming weeks, following recording with Sacramento County and the state, Behrmann said at Wednesday’s Elk Grove City Council meeting. City Council and planning commission approvals remain, as do details including entitlements and the sale of about 60 acres to Kubota for its planned campus, Berhmann said.
It marks just the third time that Elk Grove has grown its boundaries since the city incorporated in 2000, and the first since its city-changing annexation of Laguna West in 2003.
Elk Grove and Kubota have been in talks for three years on a new site and have more recently been meeting weekly, Berhmann said.
“We’re moving quickly through the processes — moving as quickly as we can,” Behrmann said.
If Elk Grove and Kubota can reach a deal, Kubota could begin construction on its planned 701,000 square-foot campus by the end of the year. The Elk Grove site would be a considerable expansion from the 180,000 square-foot Lodi facility Kubota has called home since 2005.
“Sometime this year, we’re hopeful they’ll be under construction,” Behrmann said.
Kubota would house one of its three national warehouse and distribution facilities at the Grant Line site, operate a final equipment assembly facility, keep executive offices and open its U.S. employee training and education center, Elk Grove economic development director Darrell Doan said in May. Kubota’s U.S. headquarters is in Grapevine, Texas, near Dallas.
Doan, the economic development director, said last month that landing Kubota would be a strong signal that Elk Grove was ready to do business with national and multinational corporations.
“That’s the kickoff,” Behrmann said Thursday. “We want to bring many jobs producing businesses out there.”
Just outside the annexed parcel on Grant Line Road, crews continue their work to widen the road to two lanes in each direction; while, across Highway 99, similar work is happening on Kammerer Road, both as part of the Sacramento Capital SouthEast Connector project.
“It’s all kind of coming together,” Behrmann said. “It’s attractive for businesses to locate there. We want to continue to expand. We want to create jobs for people who live here.”
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