Jesse Scheckner
It’s official: Doral will be home to the third Tesla service and sales center in Miami-Dade County.
Doral City Council members this week unanimously approved plans for the facility at 9950 NW 25th St. across the street from Albizu University.
As South Florida Business Journal reported before the vote, the coming maintenance hub and showroom will be developed from an existing warehouse built in 1984, which is currently vacant. North Miami Beach-based Elion Partners bought the 84,482-square-foot property in late 2021 for $19.75 million.
The warehouse will be converted so Tesla employees can show off vehicles for sale and service workers can perform repairs including parts replacements, tire changes and software updates. Painting and battery repair will not take place at the location.
More than 35,500 square feet of exterior space will be redeveloped to have more than 100 parking spaces and electric vehicle charging stations.
Doral Mayor Christi Fraga celebrated the move Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, by tagging both the company’s account and that of X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“Excited to announce the proposal from Tesla for an electric vehicle service and sales center in the City of Doral was approved at yesterday’s Council Zoning Meeting!” she wrote.
Excited to announce that the proposal from Tesla for an electric vehicle service and sales center in the City of Doral was approved at yesterday’s Council Zoning Meeting! @elonmusk @Tesla , welcome to @Cityofdoral ! #techjobs 🚘⚡️ pic.twitter.com/hAUt0vcU9l
— Christi Fraga (@ChristiFraga) August 24, 2023
Construction will include “low-impact development principles,” according to Doral planning chief Julian Perez, who said ahead of the vote Wednesday that the center’s outside surface areas will “exceed the solar reflective index” the City Council adopted in 2017 to reduce heat.
The center could improve nearby property values, he added.
“The project doesn’t really have any impact when it comes to the surrounding areas,” he said. “If anything, the improvements that they’re going to do along 25th Street is going to enhance the area.”
A traffic study by Canadian design and consulting firm Stantec Inc. — which also designed the facility — determined the center will bring an additional 435 daily trips to the area, but only 64 will come during peak driving hours — 22 in the morning and 42 in the evening.
Miami-Dade has two other Tesla service centers in Coral Gables and Miami Gardens in addition to retail spaces in Miami, South Miami and Aventura.
The company also has service centers in Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
