Tesla secures new 1 million-square-foot building in Texas

Tesla has secured a new 1 million-square-foot building near Brookshire, Texas. It’s not known what it’s for yet, but there’s a rumor that it is for battery storage.

Since launching its Gigafactory Texas effort in Austin two years ago and then moving its headquarters to the same location, Tesla has rapidly expanded in the state and has very much become a “Texas company.”

More recently, Tesla started working on a new lithium refinery just outside of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Now we learn that Tesla has secured a new lease on a large building in Brookshire, Texas, just outside of Houston.

The Houston Chronicle first reported on Tesla securing the lease:

Little is known about Tesla’s plans, but the Fortune 500 company signed a lease late last year for about 1.03 million square feet at 111 Empire West, part of the 300-acre Empire West Business Park in Brookshire, according to research reports from real estate brokerages Cushman & Wakefield and Savills. The landlord and developer of the park, Dallas-based Stream Realty Partners, declined to comment. Tesla officials did not respond to a request for comment. 

Mike Barnes, Brookshire’s interim city administrator, commented on the project:

We’re familiar with the Tesla project primarily from a permitting perspective. Some of their engineering-construction folks have come in with regards to initiating some dialogue.

While there’s no official word on Tesla’s plan for the large facility, the automaker already has some job openings at the location that are giving us some hints.

It sounds like it is going to involve both a warehouse and production.

Tesla writes in the description for an “Associate Manager, Production Control” position in Brookshire:

As an Associate Manager of Production Control, you will have the responsibility to design and oversee material handing functions at Gigafactory Texas. You will lead a team of Supervisors and take a KPI driven approach toward meeting daily operational objectives. In this role, you will work cross-functionally with inventory control, Production Control process, and various other supply and logistics organizations to solve problems, drive continuous improvement, and to achieve production targets.

The job also mentions a “Cell Materials production area,” indicating that the location might produce materials for cell production at Gigafactory Texas.