According to the Manteca Bulletin, Tesla is planning to build a sales and service center on Atherton Drive in Manteca, just west of the Living Spaces furniture store, in a deal that would hand the city a $4 million payday and bring the electric automaker its first brick-and-mortar presence in town. The project calls for Tesla to buy 3.7 acres at 1403 West Atherton Drive currently owned by the City of Manteca.
According to the Manteca Bulletin, the land is part of a larger 3.85-acre triangle-shaped parcel the city purchased in 2024 for $2.2 million. With the $4 million sale to Tesla now in the works, Manteca stands to net $1.8 million off the property in just two years. The city originally acquired the site to find a suitable developer after the private sector had considered the oddly shaped parcel problematic.
If it goes through, the deal would give Manteca its first new car dealership since Country Kia took over a vacant Nissan dealership at Northgate Drive and Main Street in the early 1990s. The Tesla site would also sit just west of where Kia Country is building an entirely new dealership on Atherton, itself positioned west of the recently opened Woodbridge Springs Suites. Right now, the closest Tesla showrooms and service centers to Manteca are in Stockton and Modesto, the station's report notes.
A City-Owned Billboard Sweetens the Deal
As noted by the Manteca Bulletin, as part of the arrangement, the city isn't giving up the whole parcel. Manteca will retain ownership of 0.15 acres that it plans to lease long-term to OutFront Media for an electronic LED billboard. That lease is projected to guarantee the city at least $300,000 a year, with revenue above a set threshold split 50-50 between Manteca and OutFront Media on the Atherton Drive site.
Mayor Gary Singh led the billboard negotiations, per the same account. The city is also finalizing a second billboard deal at the Highway 99 and Lathrop Road interchange, on its southeast quadrant, where revenue above a certain threshold would be split three ways involving a private property owner. Each billboard site's land-lease agreement is designed to guarantee Manteca a minimum of $300,000 annually per location, and the city would be able to use the billboards to promote community events and municipal messages at no cost.
Tesla's Deepening Footprint in the Northern San Joaquin Valley
A showroom on Atherton Drive would build on Tesla's existing manufacturing footprint just down the road in Lathrop, where the company machines parts for its vehicles and runs a battery storage factory that assembles battery packs. Manteca already hosts three Tesla Supercharger stations, located near Bass Pro, Target, and Sizzler on Airport Way.
That charging infrastructure has been expanding steadily as more electric vehicles hit the road, and Tesla is also investing in a second supercharging station in the city at Spreckels Avenue and Historical Plaza Way, in the parking lot in front of Target, as the Manteca Bulletin previously reported. That planned station is designed with 10 supercharging stalls for Tesla vehicles plus four additional charging stations other electric vehicles can use, which would bring the total number of electric charging stations in and around Manteca to 27.
The 20-stall supercharger station along the 120 Bypass at The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley, anchored by Bass Pro Shops, remains one of the larger charging hubs in the area, while the nearest other Supercharger station in the Northern San Joaquin Valley sits in Gustine off Interstate 5 near Andersen's Split Pea Soup restaurant. Those scattered charging sites have helped lay the groundwork for Tesla's interest in a full-scale showroom in Manteca, rather than sending local buyers to Stockton or Modesto for sales and service.
Another Dealership Taking Shape Nearby
The Tesla proposal arrives as Kia Country moves forward on its own new dealership along Atherton, part of a broader retail buildout near the Woodbridge Springs Suites. A related project in the works there includes a 30,942-square-foot car dealership with 108 parking stalls, which the Manteca Bulletin has described as what could be Manteca's first new car dealership location in 20 years. Together, the two projects would reshape a stretch of Atherton Drive that has seen little new auto retail activity in decades.
