AUTOMOBILES

Ontario Parts Center: Nearly 18 months after announcing the project, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. finally has broken ground on a $75-million North American parts center in Ontario. The 760,000-square-foot facility is being built by Irvine general contractor Snyder Langston.

Toyota officials say they will hire almost 400 people to staff the huge facility, which will take over the company’s U.S. parts-handling chores, now done in Japan.

Toyota thinks so much of the project, one of the largest construction jobs in Southern California in years, that corporate chairman T. Toyoda flew in from Japan to attend Monday’s groundbreaking ceremonies. Other dignitaries included Gov. Pete Wilson.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. is headquartered in Torrance, and the new parts center is in Riverside County. But the car maker’s operations cover the entire Southern California basin. Calty, Toyota’s U.S. research and design center, is in Newport Beach.