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Uploaded: Tuesday, August 25, 2009, 1:33 PM
Menlo Park tried to land Tesla headquarters
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When Tesla Motors announced Aug. 18 that it plans to relocate its headquarters from San Carlos to Palo Alto later this year, several Menlo Park residents asked whether their city made a push for the electric car maker, which has a showroom in Menlo Park.
It did, said Dave Johnson, the city's business development manager, responding in an e-mail to one such query. Menlo Park tried to steer the automaker to a 22-acre site owned by General Motors, which had at one point planned to build an auto mall there, he said.
But Tesla was looking for 350,000 square feet in an existing structure, not undeveloped land, according to Johnson. It initially seemed as though the company would move to San Jose, which offered incentives, he said -- a practice Menlo Park does not employ.
"It will be interesting to know the story behind Palo Alto's success in wrestling this away from San Jose," he wrote.
The fact that Tesla decided to locate in Silicon Valley, rather than out of state, is a boon to the entire region, Johnson said, adding that the headquarters' location within a few miles from Menlo Park might have indirect benefits for the city down the road.— Sean Howell
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Posted by jazzman, a resident of another community, on Aug 26, 2009 at 8:13 am why tesla relocated to palo alto? was it the fed bail out money that allowed them to pick expensive PA???
what are the price differences between PA, SJ, and MP????
are the Feds monitoring this company to see how they are using the bailout money????
why bail out a company that only makes high end electric cars?????
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Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2009 at 11:32 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online There is a definite need for high capacity, relatively safe and non-polluting storage batteries, especially with a future where base load plants are scarce. To the extent Tesla helps in that development, it may be a reasonable R & D expense for the G'mint.
It is probably a better expenditure than the millions spent to determine whether crack cocaine enhances copulatory performance of female mice.
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Posted by Crescent Park Dad, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Aug 26, 2009 at 8:07 pm @jazzman - read the article again. One requirement was for 350,000 sqft for manufacturing/assembly - ready to go. MP did not have any existing space, only an empty lot.
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