Tesla executives say they chose San Jose because the company wasborn in the Silicon Valley and its current headquarters is just 20miles away, which means its engineers and executives reside in thegeneral area as well as the rest of the company's 250 employees. Inaddition, it's where the skilled high-tech work force is generallylocated, and California is where it expects to find the most buyersearly on. The company's first two showrooms are in Menlo Park inNorthern California and Santa Monica in Southern California.

"Big deals like this happen when both parties have somethingsignificant to gain," said Tesla president and CEO Ze'ev Drori at aTuesday morning press conference. "Locating Tesla's headquarters,manufacturing and R&D in San Jose will allow us to proceed withminimum disruptions and virtually no dislocations."The cities areworking on a 40-year lease agreement that includes no rent for thefirst 10 years. Tesla would pay $1.5 million a year for theproperty for the next 10 years, and then for the final 20 years itsrent would increase at a rate of 2% per annum. To build the campus,Tesla will use a $150-million loan guarantee from the US Dept. ofEnergy and a $150-million private capital round led by GoldmanSachs. In addition, the state of California will essentially waivethe sales tax on $100 million worth of equipment for Tesla. Inreturn, Tesla will construct the campus with LEED-Goldcertification as its goal.

Construction of the campus is expected to generate 600 jobs and$40 million in wages. Permanent jobs at the campus would total1,000 and have an annual payroll in excess of $100 million.