By Mark Wineka

Salisbury Post

Toyota paid $2,233,500 for its 89-acre site off Peach Orchard Road.

Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. is listed as buyer of the property on the transaction recorded at the Rowan County Register of Deeds Office.

The company purchased the site from Willie Alvin Shaver; Patricia Safrit Harris and her husband, Harold R. Harris; Margaret Joan Safrit; John Wilbert Earnhardt; Yvonne E. Gullet; William Allison Cline III and his wife, Joyce Rusher Cline; Jane Cline Allen and her husband, Glenn Edward Allen; and Wayne Meredith Cline and his wife, Jaudon Thomas Cline.

The state-certified industrial property had been referred to by county economic development officials as the Cline site.

The property had been listed for sale through the Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission at $23,000 an acre but ended up selling at roughly $25,000 an acre because of an inflation clause built into the contract.

It allowed the price of the property to increase annually by the Consumer Price Index.

The parties closed the deal Jan. 28.

Toyota Racing Development plans to build a 35,000-square-foot facility to house its NASCAR competition group and chassis engineering operations. It will employ at least 40 people, according to prior announcements.

Land clearing could start this spring, with a construction completion date set for late 2008.

Toyota Racing Development officials have said they would probably sell a portion of the property at a later date.