Tags
Lance Gilman absolutely hates it when the media refers to Tahoe Reno Industrial Center as TRIC. Dude, if I also owned the brothels next story and was a sensitive type, I might have gone with Reno Tahoe Industrial Center. Just sayin’.
So what do you need to know about TRIC? First of all, it is vast – 167 square miles (for reference, the Martis forest fire was 15 square miles). Second, it is its own little fiefdom within Storey County. TRIC approves construction plans and sends them on to the County for a rubberstamp. HERE is the approved development agreement. Hard core industrial and manufacturing uses are per-approved, sort of a little unregulated future Superfund site.
Want to live near TRIC to ease your commute? You can’t. The back-end of the development agreement above has maps of where housing is allowed in Storey County. Feather River had a 320+ unit SFR development approved at Wadsworth, but they got foreclose. G Blake Smith of Somersett fame/infamy proposed the Cordevista development on a site so remote it had been previously approved for rocket fuel testing, and Storey refused to change the zoning. Man, that got really legal and ugly if you Google it. Storey has decided (probably correctly) that residential development is nasty and can’t support its costs to service it. Who needs housing next to a toxic industrial complex that is paying the freight?
TRIC wants to connect their USA Parkway from I-80 to US 50 near Silver Springs. This would open up potential air freight from the Silver Springs airport, and make the center much more accessible from Carson and the meth labs in Silver Springs itself (seriously, I have traveled this country extensively, and Silver Springs is the worst place on earth). The proposal from TRIC? We will build the road, bill NV $40M for it and dedicate it to the fine citizens of the state. We just won’t built it to state standards, pay prevailing wages, or respect the cultural artifacts we may find in the process. NDOT WISELY passed on the deal.
So we have a developer trying to land the biggest economic development project in the world right now, and he is meeting with Mistress Donna to set her hourly rates in the morning and then meeting Elon Musk in the afternoon. This is a little too wild west for my comfort zone.
Should Tesla be locating at TRIC? Absolutely yes based on logistics and all practical considerations. Will they? Ask Albuquerque how true to their agreements Tesla is. Can Nevada bend over far enough to make this happen? In the end I sort of doubt it, and I will respect NV if they call bullshit on Tesla’s unprecedented welfare demands. That said, I hope we can get it.
REreno 
Paul said:
The other nagging concern is whether Tesla wants to expose a 5 billion dollar investment to Storey County’s famously corrupt legal system.
Sully said:
For reference on TRIC size – Reno/Sparks combined is 141 sq mi.
Brian Hunt said:
Mike, love the post. I too have some ambivalence about this project. I wrote an “Open Letter to Elon Musk” on my blog. Lots of thoughts about the real meaning of “economic development”, jobs, education and “site selection”. I think some of your readers might be interested. Here is my link:
http://goodlittlecity.com/can-reno-become-a-good-little-city/14049084
geopower said:
What’s up with the gibberish wording on the Cordevista proposal? Did they actually want to put it BEHIND the dump? So the daily commute could be next to trash trucks?
Walter said:
It seems that it was only a couple of months ago that the report from this blog was that Tesla was in the bag for Reno. A done deal just waiting for the press release. A neutron shot to the local economy that would be felt for generations.
Now this blog “doubts it”.
What happened?
geopower said:
Walter,
“Tesla is already here” never meant “Telsa is here to stay.” It was true at the end of June that Tesla was already conducting site work. It’s true now that Tesla has stopped site work while they continue to shake down -sorry- negotiate with western states for the biggest subsidies possible. What happened is standard practice for Musk companies- build it with as much Other People’s Money as possible. Remember when Tesla was pretending that the reason to pursue multiple sites was to ensure rapid permitting? They’ve dropped that pretense now that they are the ones riding the brakes while they look for bigger handouts -sorry- “incentives.” Tuscon sent Tesla an unsolicited building permit for a 5 million square foot factory that only needed the address filled out! It’s pretty hard to pretend you’re concerned about “permitting delays” after ignoring that.
DB said:
Did anyone read the gist of the agreement made a few days ago between Panasonic and Tesla about their proposed joint venture Gigafactory manufacturing facility? The mega factory in question? The one Tesla was plowing dirt for before the agreement was established?
Tesla and facility are the operative words. Tesla will only acquire and manage the land, buildings and utilities. Panasonic is on Tesla’s hook to provide all else that’s required to manufacture individual battery cells (the difficult expensive part) which will presumably find a wide market independent of Testa’s requirements to make it worth Panasonic’s while. That will be the major investment, it won’t be Tesla’s. No surprise there, Musk is a master at using people for his bidding.
Examine production numbers of Tesla’s past and current models for proof of their dismal sales. If you’re not shocked by those numbers and the fortunes spent getting them there’s little hope for you. OK, a hint for a start, find out how much tax and investment money has been “invested” in Tesla and divide it by the number of vehicles produced. Compare to sales price.
Go back over a hundred years, electric cars are nothing new, they failed for good reasons then, they fail now for good reasons.
Cha ching! Tesla brings sizzle and little else. Tesla will serve it’s own needs by assembling cells into battery packs suited to whatever their needs might be, not a large effort compared to Panasonic’s commitment of huge investment.
Anyone still think Tesla is the lead here? Panasonic is who you need to talk to.
Walter said:
geo,
Here’s what this blog said on June 17, 2014:
“So we’ve got it. Tesla is coming our way with $5,000,000,000 in construction and 6500 new jobs.”
What about that quote suggests that Tesla is not here to stay?
geopower said:
As part of the Tesla deal, Gilman gets $43M for USA parkway ROW and NDOT has to pay to extended it to the Lyon county airport. So much for NDOT having control of their own budget and decision making. The governor and legislature can just hand out their money to millionaire pimps instead.