Equipment manufacturer JCB’s new $500 million, nearly 1 million-square-foot facility is well underway in San Antonio, Texas. The facility will allow JCB to expand manufacturing capabilities, a strategic move to simplify logistics and invest in the United States.
“JCB needed to increase production for their equipment, especially their telescoping material handlers, scissor lifts, and aerial lifts,” said Rusty Medlin, Vice President of Industrial for Joeris General Contractors, which JCB selected to construct the facility. “They were already planning to expand, and shifting more production to the United States made strategic and logistical sense for their operations.”
JCB originally planned to construct a 500,000-square-foot factory to expand its manufacturing capabilities.
In early 2025, President Donald Trump announced tariffs that would affect manufacturers relying on international factories and supplies. The tariffs reinforced JCB’s intention to invest in U.S. manufacturing.
“We said, ‘Let’s double down on our investment. Let’s make sure that this country, the state, the city, knows that we’re here to stay,’” JCB’s Site Services Manager Christian Rios said during a media event last fall.
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JCB announced plans to exponentially increase its investment and nearly double the facility size in April 2025. The plant will make a significant impact on the San Antonio area, where it is projected to generate an estimated $30 billion of economic impact over the next decade, according to Richard Fox-Marrs, JCB’s President and CEO, North America.
The project broke ground in June 2024, with R&S Excavation Ltd. beginning all site preparation, which included mass grading and creating a lake that required excavating 50,000 cubic yards of dirt. At the same time, San Antonio-based Joeris General Contractors won the bid to complete all additional construction activities.
The construction manager at risk with a guaranteed maximum price delivery method entailed 12 months of preconstruction, which began just after Joeris signed the contract. The construction team worked closely with designers to determine the best solutions that fit JCB’s needs while remaining on budget.
“We manage preconstruction the same way we manage construction. We involve the operations team and project superintendent, and we constantly do constructability reviews of the design,” Medlin said. “It’s a big effort that requires the right resources and a strong focus on the end goal.”
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After one year of preconstruction planning and months of site preparation, construction began in March 2025.
The pre-engineered rigid metal frame building is constructed on a slab-on-grade foundation set on piers. The building’s footprint is 800,000 square feet, and there is a second story adding to the square footage. The team used insulated metal panels on exterior walls and the roof, which will include more than 100 skylights to allow plenty of natural lighting inside the facility.
The floor is modeled after the Lean Six Sigma methodology, which increases efficiency and sustainability. Lean Six Sigma combines Lean principles to eliminate waste from production processes with Six Sigma’s focus on reducing process variations and defects, according to SixSigma.us.
“Our floor is going to be shiny,” Rios said during a media event last fall. “It means that if there are any imperfections with our machines or the oil leaks, it will be caught because it will become even more apparent on the floor.”
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The facility features administrative space that includes a lobby, offices, cubicles, a gym, and a cafeteria. The remaining space is dedicated to assembly, fabrication, welding, paint, and other manufacturing processes required to produce construction machines and equipment. The building also will feature a parking lot with electric vehicle chargers that can accommodate the 1,500 employees expected to be needed to run the facility.
“To be the employer of choice is important,” said David Carver, JCB’s Operations Director, during the media event. “We brought natural lighting through the roof with skylights. We’ve spent considerable amounts on the air conditioning system to try and keep the temperature at the right level. We’ve spent money so people can see out of the building in the day and not just be stuck in a black box all through the day.”
To pull off successful project delivery, Joeris relies on its construction technology (CT) team and BIM modeling to coordinate systems, equipment, and logistics.
“We use the BIM model to bring all disciplines together, identify potential clashes, and work through them before installation,” Medlin said.
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This process identifies clashes before installation, preventing the risk of expensive rework that can impact the project schedule.
The team is close to halfway finished with construction. They have erected the building and installed metal wall and roof panels. Crews currently are installing underground utilities, fire sprinkler systems, air conditioning units, exterior concrete, ductwork, and electrical components.
“It’s a very large factory with big equipment, which drives the scale of the HVAC and electrical systems,” Medlin said. “We have ductwork on the project that’s 6 feet in diameter. You can walk through it.”
Joeris’ CT team modeled ductwork, water piping, communication lines, electrical, and other components in a computer animated environment to determine spacing requirements.
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The team also modeled the space needed for the roughly 300 assets JCB will need to manufacture construction equipment. As they are selected, Joeris, JCB, and the designer meet with vendors to show where assets will live and determine what each vendor needs for installation.
“When JCB selects equipment for the space, each piece has its own requirements. We often make small changes to adapt the building to what they purchased,” Medlin said. “And we have to determine what kind of access they need when the equipment is ready to install and how that works with our overall schedule to determine whether we need to resequence to make it work.”
Manufacturing JCB’s construction equipment will require a heavy electrical draw, needing 14 megawatts of electrical service. Joeris, JCB, and the designer stayed in close contact with the utility provider, CPS Energy, which ultimately decided to construct a new substation close to the plant.
“The utility was very engaged and worked closely with the team to plan infrastructure that supports JCB’s power needs,” Medlin said. “Coordination with CPS Energy was an important part of preparing the site for long-term operations.”
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Joeris also relied on its CT team to manage logistical planning on the 400-acre site for traffic patterns, fire lanes, security, and materials staging.
“When you have such a large site, you have to consider so many factors,” Medlin said. “For example, we needed to determine how we would get so much steel on and off this site. When it’s dropped off, that’s 500 truckloads. How do the trucks come in, and how do they exit? Then you have to determine where to store all that steel. It has to be close enough to the building for easy access, but it can’t impede construction.”
The CT team leveraged BIM modeling to create plans using computer animations for factors ranging from the best place to store steel and other materials to the location of large equipment like cranes, taking their swing radius, size, movement, and nearby traffic patterns into account.
Joeris plans a phased facility turnover to JCB that is expected to begin in fall 2026. Final turnover is expected in early 2027.
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“The phased turnover allows JCB time to move in and train staff on equipment,” Medlin said. “When we do a manufacturing facility of this size, phased turnover is essential because of everything required to bring operations online.”
The new facility will allow JCB to expand manufacturing in the United States, with the opportunity to increase production in the future.
“Ultimately, the shell of the building will allow us to build anything that JCB currently makes,” Fox-Marrs said at a media event. “And we could quite easily stand up other buildings, or we could quite easily pivot inside the building and use areas that are designated for one product at the moment for something else.”
Expanding operations to San Antonio, Texas, represents the single largest investment in JCB’s 80-year history.
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- 330,000 square feet of insulated metal wall panels
- 741,000 square feet of insulated metal roof panels
- 3,900 tons of structural steel
- 27,000 cubic yards of foundation concrete
- 40,000 cubic yards of concrete site paving
- 4,000 tons of cooling for air conditioning/heating
- General Contractor: Joeris General Contractors, San Antonio, Texas
- Architectural Design: RVK Architecture, San Antonio, Texas
- Earthwork: R&S Excavation Ltd., Boerne, Texas
- Utility Contractor: Ella Contracting, San Antonio, Texas
- Utility Provider: CPS Energy, San Antonio, Texas
