Slashdot Mirror
Tesla's Already Shopping For More Office Space
cartechboy writes Remember four years ago when Tesla's new headquarters in Palo Alto, California seemed like a big risk? Yeah, time flies and now the Silicon Valley startup is already running out of room. Apparently the electric-car maker is already looking for 200,000-300,000 square feet of office space in the lower Peninsula market. Part of the motivation is that the company would like to have employees closer to its Fremont factory, which is 20 miles from its current headquarters. With heavy traffic that journey can take up to an hour or more. While not looking to relocate its headquarters, Tesla's simply looking to expand its space. Meanwhile, we all eagerly await to hear if the Gigafactory will indeed end up being built in Nevada.
Plenty of office space there. Plenty of *any* space, really.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
It'd probably be cheaper and smarter to just pay for your company and employees to move to Southern California, have better access to several major interstate corridors, better choices of location, better prices, and more.
Sitting in the Bay Area, when you are a Vehicle company, is a bad idea. You want more access to major traffic corridors to make it easier to get to you. Plenty of that in SoCal, not much of that in the Bay Area. You've only got the 101/5. Here we've got 101/5/15/10.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
funny since I noticed there's a new development (700k sqft) off Dixon Landing slated as "manufacturing/warehouse" which is two freeway exits from their Fremont plant.
Alternatively, there's a parcel of land across the street from the plant as well.
... I think such a large office space needs some sort of transport for people to go from one end to another. Should not be emitting gases and ideally be very silent. Wonder who has the know-how to conjure up such a vehicle ;-)
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The Gigafactory should be located in Low Earth Orbit with a polar orbit path. Limitless power from the sun andraw material provided by captured asteroid.
Delivery will be by Virgin Galactic.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
The Dumbarton (the closest route from PA) jams up. 237/880 (The route from further South on Peninsula and the South Bay) is a parking lot. It is simply not possible for a single location to be an easy drive from both Palo Alto and Fremont. If Tesla wants their employees meaningfully closer to the factory, they are going to have to put them on the factory's side of the Bay. I.e., Fremont or Union City.
At this rate you guys are going to be out of water forever. Unless Tesla invest a rain-making machine.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
That is definetly not the environment attract the proper staff to build sports cars in.
I was worried that I'd miss my daily dose of Musk.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Just north of the Fremont plant is undeveloped land that is right next to the new BART station. They could build there allowing employees to take mass transit and also be within walking distance of the factory. If they out grow the space, or hit lean times, they should be able to rent the space at a premium since it is next to the station.
Tesla might want to take a page from Henry Ford's book, from back when He was the cutting edge of high tek:
Ford, to this day, has most of its office space in, or typically as a layer on the outer surface of, its factories, laboratories, etc. Walk down the hall and every few hundred feet you can make a right turn, go through a door, and be on the factory floor or a balcony around it with a handy stairway to it.
Generally the best way to the cafeteria is usually across the floor, as is the best way to more offices than not. (Indeed, the cafeteria may be in the CENTER of the plant, making it equally convenient to all but more convenient to the workers, and making a trip through the factory mandatory for white-collars who want to do lunch.)
Henry wanted the engineers and executives to be connected to the nitty-gritty of the business, and thought that keeping it visible, several times a day, would help improve communication and focus.
There's a story about the River Rouge plant - Henry's dream manufacturing complex, designed to eat iron ore and spit cars: Seems that the managers built an office building in the middle of it, and when it was done, showed it to Henry. After the tour he asked them "How many cars are built here?" When they answered "none", he asked "What parts are built here?" Again the answer was "none". So he had it torn down. B-)
(Cadillac Motor Car did the same sort of thing, at least through the '70s: The offices were across the street from the main assembly plant, but there was an enclosed bridge between them and you actually had to walk across the in-operation assembly line (on the second floor, near the "body drop") to get to the cafeteria / lunch room.)
It may seem strange to give Tesla suggestions from the Detroit auto industry. But IMHO this is something that they got very right. You'll notice my examples were Ford and Cadillac:
The Ford family took the company back from the Pointy Haired Business School Grads a few decades back, turning it around {and undoing the McCarthy Era communication stoppage between the white and blue collars that trashed the US auto industry while Japan built their industry on Demming}. Unlike GM and Chrysler, Ford didn't need a bailout. It was out-competing Japanese auto companie on quality, reliability, safety, and price-performance.
Cadillac, through long since merged into GM, was given a hands-off treatment for decades, because it made cars to exceptionally high quality and comfort standards.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
They must have a good PR company to get all this free advertising.
That plus the industrial cost of electricity here is something like 1/20th that of gasoline and it's Green Electricity, baby, Green!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
If they could afford to drive Teslas they could use the HOV lane thus cutting down commute time.
And probably plenty of import duties when trying to get the finished product into the target market. And ineligibility for purchase of fleets by organizations subject to the Buy American Act. Or does NAFTA make Canada "American" for this purpose?
Come to Atlanta!
There is a Defunct GM plant on the outskirts of 285!
Located in Doraville.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
Even just for office space, I wonder how many work visas Canada is willing to grant to let Tesla relocate staff to that office.
Water is the life blood of the universe.
He who controls the water, controls everything!
Move to Seattle. Our energy is cheaper, greener, and the water flows!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
right across the freeway from the tesla factory, there's a huge, huge new prefab office building going up. unfortunately it stinks to high heaven right there due to the dump just upwind. i wonder if the people building that building are taking some kind of calculated risk that tesla might want it... because i can't imagine who else would.
Ever driven one with a stickshift on that V-8? I rest my case right there...
* :)
(Imo, the best & funnest sportscar built for the money involved...)
APK
P.S.=> They did do it right too, trimming out middle-mgt. & 'exec' fat, not having to take a cent of gov't. 'bailout' monies too (since THEIR FAMILY NAME is on the product they still take pride in it AND YOU CAN BET that they themselves "know a thing or two" about the product itself, from the nuts & bolts ground up on its tech - which in & of itself makes ALL the difference)
Additionally - just knowing their ancestors & parents built it up for the current generation to take over and do the same for their offspring later is a lot as well!
(As THAT is what keeps companies going, being privately held with the family maintaining controlling interest & the most, instead of just being a "publicly traded asset" in some investment-class types' stock portfolio - in other words an expendable asset...)
... apk
$timetaken1
My office is in the Warm Springs district of Fremont less than 1KM from the Tesla plant. I can't step outside without a Tesla fresh from the factory or a demo rolling over my toes.
There is a huge amount of empty real estate around here. The main Solyndra building got purchased by Seagate, but they occupied several other buildings which are still empty. Including the Solyndra HQ which was visited by Obama for a photo op. It used to be the HMT building, then MMC, then Solyndra bought it and completely refurbished it. Next to it is about 500,000 sq ft of what used to be a Compaq facility, then HP, then Solyndra, now empty.
There are tons of other buildings that were full of dot-com era tech that are all now empty. And new buildings on what was the McCarthy Ranch. It is a few miles further away but easy freeway access.
Let's just say it is a buyer's market. Why Tesla would be having any difficulty all choosing what space they want to occupy is an amazing notion. I'll never understand commercial real estate.