California continues to expand Tesla leases new land for $1 a year

As Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, Tesla is still expanding its operations in California despite the company's official move of headquarters to Texas. In the course of its California expansion, Tesla leased 9 acres of land for $1 a year to support its operations in Lethrop.

Since entering Lethrop in 2014, Tesla has been interested in expanding its local footprint. In the meantime, Tesla hopes to transform the old local distribution center into a production base for auto parts. Tesla has since expanded its activities in Lethrop, building an 870,000-square-foot warehouse in the city. Recently, Tesla also broke ground for the "Gigapq" of its flagship battery storage unit Megapack.

As Tesla prepares to hire about 1,500 people in this "gigafactory" and work in two shifts, the demand for space where factory employees can park while they work has increased. With that in mind, the Leithrop City Council voted unanimously last week to lease 9 acres of city-owned land to the electric car maker. Tesla is expected to pay for all improvements, infrastructure, and maintenance on the new land, but that may not be a problem.

That's because the City of Leithrop chose to lease the 9 acres to Tesla for $1 a year. Not a dollar per acre a year. The entire plot is one dollar a year. While the one-dollar deal may come as a shock to some, the city wrote in an employee report prepared for parliament that Tesla's presence in the city would bring more jobs and taxes. These become very apparent once the "Gigafactory" starts operating.

Proponents say Tesla's presence in Lethrop has boosted growth across the city by providing jobs and taxes. The plant will create about 1,500 jobs and additional tax revenue for the city, so workers are working to provide Parking Solutions for Tesla employees to facilitate maximum operations.

Tesla and the City of Leithrop have been working together for years. Even before the company completed its sprawling warehouse, the electric car maker was already using several locations in the city to stock up cars produced at the Fremont plant. Given Elon Musk's commitment to expand Tesla's presence in California, despite the company's decision to move its headquarters to Texas, Lethrop's Tesla expansion may only have just begun.