Telsa Motors center in Pinellas County nears finish line
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Nov 7, 2022

The Tesla Motors facility headed to Lealman is a few months away from opening as a developer performs a major renovation to make way for the project.

The electric vehicle company has taken over the former Kane’s Furniture liquidation center at 4601 34th St. N. Rob Truett, principal of Truett Realty Group, purchased the 4.21-acre property for $13 million in May and has been renovating the more than 100,000-square-foot facility. He said all-in-all, they intend to complete the project in under 10 months.

The site is in unincorporated Pinellas County and lies within the Lealman Community Redevelopment Area, which was established in 2015. When finished, the site will have indoor storage space, a service center and a showroom.

“Pinellas County is the most densely populated county per acre in the state,” Truett said. “It often feels like there’s nowhere to develop, that it’s built out. So, to have found something that checks all of the boxes from a zoning perspective, from a size perspective, from a parking perspective — it’s a very, very difficult exercise.”

Truett said they are finishing the framework for much of the site, and it will have unique attributes — glass roll-up doors, indoor storage for 170 cars and a sleek showroom. A mezzanine will act as parts storage, and cars arriving for service will go through a state-of-the-art center before being washed and delivered to the customer just outside the showroom.

The space will serve the center for years, even if circulation grows past the anticipated demand. Because of the large vehicle storage space toward the back of the building, the developer can easily expand the size of the service center by pushing back into the parking. Truett also upgraded the power at the site.

The car storage area has a series of benefits, and Truett said a need for something like this was never more evident than during Hurricane Ian. If a storm is coming, the company can bring its inventory into the building, which has impact-rated glass. Many traditional dealerships have to leave their inventory on the lot to weather any incoming storm.

As soon as they closed on the project, Truett said they began buying the equipment needed as they were confident they’d receive the necessary permits to move forward. They worked with both the county and the Lealman CRA, and Truett said it was a smooth process from start to finish. His confidence in the county allowed them to begin work immediately once the permits went through.

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This is far from the first adaptive reuse project Truett has led. He’s currently building a collision center in Fort Lauderdale, and in Orlando, they transformed a family fun center into a large collision center. The Lealman site was a relatively blank canvas which Truett said allowed them to “be as creative as possible to value engineer the site” into a perfect venue for Tesla. Adaptive reuse is the future for Pinellas County, according to Truett, and there is no shortage of potential.

Since the project’s announcement, he has been approached by several other property owners nearby who have expressed an interest in seeing their property transformed as well. He said many were “waiting for that first domino to fall,” and he hopes to possibly acquire a few more properties going forward to spur further growth.

“I grew up here; I still have family here, and when I visit, I see how outdated we are in comparison to the rest of the state,” Truett said. “It’s not bad product; it’s just not right for any modern business. If you get creative, if you’re devoted to thinking outside the box, I think you’ll find that there’s so much potential in Pinellas. That’s the fun part about it, you end up producing projects that are very challenging, but when you pull them off, they’re super rewarding.”

Christopher Moore, assistant to the county administrator for Lealman, said Lealman has a lot of potential for its location to the rest of the county. The Tesla center — which will be the first of its kind in Pinellas County — and the Amazon delivery station headed to 6101 45th St. N indicate Lealman may be on the cusp of a metamorphosis.

Moore said Truett’s genuine interest in revitalizing this area has meant a lot not only to the county but also to the residents. He said it has been a boost to their sense of pride, and he expects that momentum to only continue to grow.

“It’s particularly important here in a low-income community where folks typically judge a book by its cover. The image of a company like this on top of the business aspects of it can really, truly have a ripple effect,” Moore said. “You see it in residential facade programs and things like that where you fix up your house, your neighbor fixes up their house, and soon the whole neighborhood is renovated.”