CLAAS has opened a new research and development center on the southwest corner of its West Omaha campus, a nearly 45,000-square-foot facility built to sharpen the company's engineering, testing and logistics work. The $10 million project includes an expanded instrumentation room, upgraded space for logistics operations, and an internal heated wash bay, and it went up in just over a year.
The center is one piece of a much larger $100 million plan CLAAS has for its North American operations, according to KMTV 3 News Now Omaha, which reported on the opening. The station's report notes the Omaha plant has now assembled more than 10,000 combines, a milestone that lines up with earlier reporting from High Plains Journal, which detailed the 10,000th LEXION combine built at the facility in spring 2025.
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen joined company leaders, employees, and community members for the ribbon-cutting, praising the investment as an example of the state's agricultural strength and future-focused innovation, per the station's account. It wasn't his first stop at the campus this year. According to CLAAS, Pillen visited in May 2026 to sign tax incentive bill LB 1165 and apprenticeship bill LB 847 into law directly on site, legislation designed to create state income tax credits that reward major employers investing in Nebraska operations and job retention.
A Campus With Roots Back to 1999
CLAAS, a family-owned agricultural equipment manufacturer founded in 1913, has built a significant footprint in Omaha over more than two decades. The campus itself traces back to 1999, when it began as a joint venture with Caterpillar Inc. to build Caterpillar-branded yellow combines, before CLAAS bought out Caterpillar's stake in 2002 to take full ownership, according to Farm Progress.
CLAAS Group CEO Jan-Hendrik Mohr broke ground on the research center on August 29, 2025, returning to the very site he had helped clear for the company's initial North American footprint a quarter-century earlier, the company said in a statement. Construction reached a major milestone on May 8, 2026, when CLAAS held a traditional German Richtfest, or topping-out ceremony, to mark the structural completion of the building's roof alongside employees, architects, and construction crews.
More Than Just the R&D Building
The research center isn't the only project reshaping the campus. CLAAS has also been building a Customer Experience Center and renovating its showroom, with that work targeted for completion by mid-2026 to host dealer training and customer visits, according to Nebraska Ag Connection. Together, the projects point to a campus being retooled as a long-term hub rather than a single expansion.
The Omaha plant currently builds more than 600 LEXION series combines each year and sources over a third of its assembly components from local North American suppliers, per CLAAS. The company has said it employs more than 250 people in Omaha, and the factory floor has room to expand.
Why Nebraska Matters to a German Manufacturer
CLAAS's parent company, CLAAS KGaA mbH, is headquartered in Harsewinkel, Germany. Building out research capability in Omaha will support development and testing for North American farming conditions.
For CLAAS, the new center reinforces Omaha's role as a hub for agricultural innovation and manufacturing, the company said. With the research facility now open and the customer-focused buildings nearing completion, the West Omaha campus looks set to keep expanding its footprint in the years ahead.
