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SURGE IN CHARGING: More charging stations being added
Living Spaces will have 64 charge stalls
transit charge

Manteca’s second Tesla Super Charging station will be up and running within the next few months.

And by years’ end Manteca could be pushing 100 public charging stations.

That’s because Living Spaces — the 117,000-square-foot furniture showroom breaking ground this spring on Atherton Drive southwest of the Union Road and 120 Bypass interchange — will have 14 percent of its 456 spaces prewired for charging stations.

Given the demand the Tesla Super Charging station just down the road near Bass Pro Shops in The Promenade at Orchard Valley complex is enjoying due to its strategic location on the 120 Bypass, Living Spaces isn’t expected to have difficulty securing a charging firm to lease the spots.

The 20-stall supercharger station along the 120 Bypass in The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley anchored by Bass Pro Shops at many times during the week is nearly full.

In a nod to the strategic location Manteca serves to reach destinations, Tesla is investing in a second supercharging station in the city.

It is being installed along Spreckels Avenue at Historical Plaza Way in the parking lot in front of Target. It will have 10 supercharging stalls designed for Tesla and four other charging stations that other electric vehicles can use. The Target site will be activated as soon as PG&E completes the connection.

The only other Tesla Supercharging station in the Northern San Joaquin Valley is in Gustine off of Interstate 5 at Andersen’s Split Pea Soup restaurant near where Highway 152 heads over Pacheco Pass.

The fact Manteca is literally at a major crossroads for the three anchors of the NorCal MegaRegion of 17 million as it is almost equal distance of from San Jose (68 miles), San Francisco (76 miles), and Sacramento (59 miles) bodes well for the city being able to snag tourists and travelers. The city is also 95 miles from Napa Valley and 112 miles from Fresno.

When completed, it will bring the number of electric charging stations in Manteca as well as on its outskirts to 27. That includes two charging spots at the Manteca Transit Center on Moffat Boulevard and a tesla destination charge at Delicato Vineyards. The Living Spaces stalls would push that number to more than 90 if all of them are completed with charging stations.

 

Two Tesla Super

Charger stations

in one city is unusual

And while more electric chargers — for Tesla vehicles and others — will continue to pop up as more electric vehicles are on the road, the fact Manteca will have two Tesla supercharging stations before virtually any other city in the region re-enforces the City of Manteca’s push to snag tourists as well as more traveler dollars.

Already restaurants at Orchard Valley benefit from the roughly 30 minutes it takes to recharge a Tesla. Bass Pro Shops also snags Tesla users that browse the store while it is being charged.

The upside for Tesla drivers that will recharge at the Spreckels Avenue location is that there are 29 dining options — including two Starbucks locations and a Jamba Juice — within a two block walk. It is the largest concentration of dining options in Manteca. The area already snags a lot of Bay Area drivers heading to and from the Sierra as well as those traveling Highway 99.

Those charging cars in the future at Living Spaces could also have a restaurant option.

Living Spaces will have an in-store restaurant. It is a concept similar to Ikea stores that carry furniture and a long list of household items. Living Spaces stores carry primarily their own brand of furniture plus some items best described as knick-knacks. The Manteca store will have minimal warehouse space as orders will be shipped to Manteca from a central distribution center in the Bay Ara.

There are 25 stores in the Living Spaces chain. Five are in the Bay Area including a store being built in San Jose. The closet store to Manteca is Fremont. Half of their existing stores are in Southern California with other locations in Texas, Nevada, and Arizona.

Living Spaces picked Manteca due to its central location in the Northern San Joaquin Valley market of 1.5 million consumers.

The Southern California firm is projecting annual sales of $35 million at the high-profile Manteca location. They will employ 65 full-time workers, 25-part-time workers and throughout a given year have 50 temporary workers. The store will be roughly the size of Manteca’s Target store.

Manteca sealed the deal for Living Spaces with a sales tax split similar to what the city did to secure Costco and The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley whose developers snared Bass Pro Shops.

That means Manteca — based on projected annual sales of $35 million — will end up splitting an estimated $350,000 in local sales tax. The actual deal calls for the split to be 50-50 of whatever is actually generated — whether it is annually higher or lower than $350,000 for 10 years or $3 million, whichever is reached first.

Based on the projections, Manteca while the split is in effect would receive $175,000 in general fund sales tax, $20,000 in property tax, and $175,000 in restricted Measure M public safety tax. Manteca’s leaders point out the $370,000 a year the city will receive while the terms of the split are in effect is $375,000 that would have been lost to another city. After the terms are fulfilled, Manteca would receive all of the sales tax.

It is somewhat different than a sales tax split deal with Costco that will end by 2020 that covered the entire tab for the wholesale retailer’s cost of building a store in Manteca. The deal that brought Bass Pro Shops — a retailer with a 100-mile regional draw — to Manteca was actually made with the developer of The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley. It is a 35-year sales tax split capped at $35 million. However, if the center doesn’t generate that much through the split after 35 years, the city is not obligated to make up the difference.

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com