Tesla & the USA Parkway Promise
The biggest news to rock the Reno housing market a decade ago in 2014 was the announcement last year that Tesla would be locating its Gigafactory just east of town. The factory is the battery machine behind Tesla's plans to be THE EV Car Seller Globally. Back in 2014, when the deal was announced, Tesla's goal was to sell 500,000 electric cars by the year 2020. (The article was updated in 2024, and last year, Tesla sold 1.81 million EV cars globally).
A Boon for the Economy
The move to Reno, coming as it did on the heels of the Recession, kick started the Northern Nevada economy. By 2015, it had created more than 700 construction jobs. And more importantly, it created a buzz about the potential for making Reno a center for high-tech (translate "high paying") industrial and service jobs, the gray-collar jobs, if you will.
The new factory broke ground in 2014 at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, a business/industrial park east of Sparks that already had 6,000 people showing up for work each day before Tesla even eyed it as a possible location. (Apple's iCloud Data Center is on the other side of the freeway with more than 300 acres of elbow room to grow into.)
Homes for Sale Near Tesla Gigafactory Nevada
New Commuter Roads Means New Housing Markets
With private rail connections to the Union Pacific, industrial park tenants can guarantee their on-line clients one-day shipping from Seattle to San Diego without the regulatory hassles of doing business in California. Tesla's arrival on the scene also lead to the construction of a new roadway that makes it easy for those working at the Industrial Center to commute from Highway 50 in Carson City, opening up housing opportunities in the beautiful areas of Carson City, Minden, and Gardnerville -- communities in the foothills of the Sierra & just a short drive to Lake Tahoe.
As part of the incentive package that lured Tesla to Nevada, the state promised to invest $43 million into acquiring the right-of-way for USA Parkway, an 18-mile stretch of road that has proven to be a game changer for commuters. If you lived in Carson City, Genoa, or Lake Tahoe, you were previously looking at an hour or more to get to the Industrial Center (taking I-580 north to I-80, and then commuting 14 miles east on I-80 just to get the "entrance" to the Business Park.) The new road connects you directly. From Highway 50, it' a straight shot to USA Parkway:
If you've never heard of Silver Springs, don't worry. (A lot of people haven't) But if the roadway goes as planned, Silver Springs, Dayton, Mound House and other Eastern Nevada outliers are likely to become more familiar names, as USA Parkway opens the route from Carson to I-80 East without having to battle Reno traffic.
Here's how it looks on the map:
