Tesla charging station coming soon to Leavenworth

For Dan’s Food Market owner Eric Worthen, developing a Tesla charging station on his vacant property next to the store was the farthest from his mind. The dirt parking lot was used for overflow parking at the market, but also used for festival and weekend parking.
One day, someone knocked his office door at Dan’s Market. It was Sean Dayton, the instillation program manager for Tesla.
“He told me what he had in mind. We talked for about 15 minutes,” Worthen said. “He laid it all out. It took me back. I need time to think about it. I thought about it for a couple days and told him I was not interested. I wasn’t interested, because I didn’t know enough about Tesla and whether it would be a good fit for the parking lot.”
In the meantime, Worthen did some research. Dayton kept coming back and wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Dayton had looked all over town, but this was the perfect spot, the power was there, the water and importantly, the space.
Worthen talked it over with the family, but they felt losing all that parking space was not worth it. Still, Dayton kept coming back only to hear from Worthen that he wasn’t interested.
“They did tell me there was no higher priority for Tesla superchargers than Leavenworth, Washington. They’ve talked to their people that own Telsa’s and they spoke. It’s on Highway 2 on the way to Chelan,” Worthen said. “Ninety percent of Tesla’s that are going to charge out here are from the greater Seattle area. There are lot of them over there. After talking to more than just Sean, we talked it over as a family and thought maybe this will work.”
At long last, Worthen started to negotiate with them. Initially, Tesla was only gong to pay for the instillation. Worthen would be responsible for the power usage and there would be no lease money coming from Tesla.
In the United States, Telsa stations are in high demand because it brings added value to the property, Worthen learned. Still, Worthen is so busy at the store, he didn’t see where it would be any added value.
“Then, after several months of negotiations and me getting what I want for that property...they are going to pave it, stripe it. Those are basically doing $60,000 to $70,000 in improvements to my property and they are paying for all that,” Worthen said. “There is a 10-year lease with five year options after that. After several months, we thought it just makes sense, so let’s do it.”
The contracts were signed last October, but it was too late in the year to start the work. It didn’t really matter because it took several months to process the project through the city.
Worthen said he was very impressed with the Telsa crew.
“They are really sharp people, everybody that works for them. They were good to work with. I think it will be good for the city. I know some people will think, that’s all we need is more people here, more cars,” Worthen said. “Not everybody is going to think it’s a great deal. If look at the people who own Tesla’s, they are all in a high tax bracket. They are going to come here and spend money and time. I just think it is cool.”
Tesla will be leasing the property, but due to the contract, Worthen could not reveal what they are paying. He said that financially, it just made sense. When it’s all done, there will actually be even more parking available.
“They are going to pave it and stripe it. We’re actually going to generate more parking from it. I’m not going to be able park cars on weekends and festivals. That will go away,” he said. “I don’t anticipate there is going to be room. We’re getting busy here. It’s very important I save parking for my customers. We’ll see on Christmas Lighting and Oktoberfest, I’ll probably be able to shove some cars out there.”
Worthen said he is a little concerned about the travelers with boats and the RVs that typically park there. The spaces in front of the chargers is reserved, but Worthen said there is some flexibility to use those spots when it’s not busy in town.
The entire project to install the Tesla charging stations is around $500,000 to $600,000, Worthen said.
“There are 16 chargers out there. I’ve had a lot of comments already. There’s one in Ellensburg and one in Monroe. This will work well for people coming to Chelan, Wenatchee, Leavenworth,” he said. “It’s centrally located on U.S. Highway 2. Charges in 30-40 minutes. Hopefully the people will be receptive to it. It was a dirt parking lot, chuck hole city. It will be clean, landscaped, fenced. It will be a good addition to my grocery store.”
It’s expected the Tesla charging station, parking lot and landscaping, would be finished in the next month or so.  
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.