As the final step in Toyota Financial Services’ closure of its Cedar Rapids operations, the company has announced plans to lay off its 54 remaining employees in Cedar Rapids.
A notice posted to the Iowa Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act website indicated the layoffs would take effect Dec. 31, 2024, but Vincent Bray, senior manager of corporate communications for Toyota Financial, said the date on the Iowa WARN notice was incorrect, and the layoffs would actually take effect Dec. 31, 2025.
The 54 Cedar Rapids employees are currently working remotely, Mr. Bray said.
The layoffs are the final step in Toyota Financial Services’ March 2021 announcement that they would be closing their Cedar Rapids location, 5005 N. River Blvd. NE, by the end of 2022, resulting in the loss of an estimated 600 jobs.
As part of that decision, the company said in May 2022 it planned to cut 322 positions at the company’s Cedar Rapids customer service center, effective in July 2022.
The center was closed at the end of 2022, and has stood mostly vacant since then.
More recently, the Xavier Catholic Schools Board announced plans Oct. 17 to remodel the building and repurpose it as the metro area’s new Catholic middle school. The remodel is slated for completion by August 2026.
Mr. Bray also noted that every Cedar Rapids-based Toyota employee who wished to continue with the company was given a position at Toyota Financial locations in Chandler, Arizona; Plano, Texas; or Alpharetta, Georgia.
Toyota began financial operations in Cedar Rapids in 1991, opening a Toyota Motor Insurance Services office with just 18 employees.
In March of 1997, the operation was expanded to include a call center to serve Toyota Motor Credit’s finance and lease customers.
In March 1999, Toyota Motor Credit Corporation held a grand opening ceremony for its new $20 million, 110,000-square-foot Financial Services Center, which was to employ 400 workers from the area with an annual payroll topping $10 million at the time.
