Tesla to lease 210K sf manufacturing plant in Fremont

Tesla will expand manufacturing in Fremont by leasing a 210,000-square-foot plant to make cells for batteries.

The Austin-based electric vehicle maker has inked a lease for the industrial building at 48401 Fremont Boulevard, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing two unidentified sources. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The owner of the plant is Prologis, the San Francisco-based real estate investment trust.

The reinforced concrete facility will help produce Tesla’s 4680 battery cell, according to one source with direct knowledge of the deal. The 4680 cell, a more efficient and longer-lasting battery technology, is expected to be key to this year’s rollout of the Cybertruck.

The company has plants supporting the technology in Texas and in Fremont, where it now operates a 5.5 million-square-foot EV factory with 22,000 workers.

In 2021, Santa Clara-based Applied Materials had leased the new advanced manufacturing plant at 48401 Fremont with plans to turn it into a “cleanroom” to make semiconductor equipment. But it pulled out of the project last spring.

Fremont city staff confirmed to the Business Times that Applied had scuttled plans for 48401 Fremont, but could not say what prompted the move. The semiconductor company had agreed to lease the two-story building through this fall, but put it up for sublease early this year.

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Prologis, which acquired the building last year in its $26 billion acquisition of Duke Realty, took the building back from Applied and will lease it directly to Tesla, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal. 

Duke completed the building in 2021. It contains 11,300 square feet of offices, but was never occupied by Applied, according to marketing materials reviewed by the Business Times.

— Dana Bartholomew