Tesla to build third Orlando-area dealership in Kissimmee

Electric carmaker Tesla is planning to build its second new dealership in as many years in Central Florida.

The Elon Musk-led company currently operates one dealership in Maitland/Eatonville and is building a second on State Road 50 in Clermont. The third would go on S. Orange Blossom Trail near the intersection with Osceola Parkway.

O’Connor Capital Partners, which co-developed the nearby Crosslands shopping center with Tupperware, is seeking a Site Development Plan for the grading and horizontal construction work to serve the 57,436-square-foot service center. The location is 9 miles south of The Florida Mall, where Tesla has a showroom.

The property has long been owned by the John D. Holloway Trust, which is managed by Charles Bailes III, president of ABC Fine Wine & Spirits. O’Connor Capital Partners contracted to purchase it in 2019. Abdul Alkaldry with Harris is the civil engineer, and Landscape Designs LLC is the landscape architect. Eleven18 Architecture is designing the center. The site plan calls for 291 parking spaces, which exceeds the minimum requirement for the building but allows the center to function as a delivery site for new EVs.

The 5.3-acre site is across from the new Orange Blossom Plaza, a new grocery-anchored shopping center that will be built by Atlanta-base SJC Ventures. The developer of that project will be adding a traffic signal and turn lanes at Orange Blossom Trail and Country Boulevard, which is part of the $2 million investment in traffic improvements that will serve both projects.

Tesla dealerships differ from traditional automakers because they maintain limited inventory onsite with only a small gallery of the models available for pre-order. The bulk of the space is dedicated to service. In Central Florida, the company operates a showroom at The Florida Mall and another in Eatonville, which also serves as the region’s only service center. The carmaker bought a building 1051 W. Sand Lake Rd. in 2021 and opened a collision repair center there.

Tesla is America’s most popular EV manufacturer. The company’s four models ranked first, second, fourth and sixth for total sales in 2022. Last year vehicle deliveries grew 40% year over year, to 1.31 million while production grew 47% year over year to 1.37 million. That kind of growth creates demand for additional service bays in locations that are convenient for customers.

The Clermont service center is under construction now and should be completed by the end of the year. At 61,253 square feet, it’s slightly larger than the proposed Kissimmee center.

Tesla also filed plans in January to install three supercharger cabinets at the Publix in Partin Village on U.S. 192. The company is fast expanding its network of charging stations, having added 1,200 stations and about 11,000 connectors in 2022. Tesla ended the year with 4,678 charging stations and 42,419 chargers. This meant a growth of 35% from 2021.

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