Downey is hoping that for electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc., the third time is a charm.
Mayor Mario Guerra said Tuesday that the city was close to cementing a deal that would have Tesla build a factory on the site of the former space shuttle plant, potentially bringing auto manufacturing back to Southern California for the first time in nearly two decades.
The plant would employ 1,200 to 1,500 workers, he said, and be on an 80-acre site currently used by Downey Studios for film and television production. Years before, it was used by Rockwell International, and later Boeing Co., to build spacecraft.
The Downey City Council was expected to vote as early as Tuesday night on a memorandum of understanding with Industrial Realty Group, which operates Downey Studios, to broker a lease deal to the automaker, Guerra said.
Tesla, which currently makes a $109,000 electric coupe, has been looking for a location to build its next vehicle, an all-electric sedan called the Model S, for several years.
In June, it was awarded $465 million in low-cost loans from the Energy Department to finance production of the Model S, which is slated to have a retail price of $57,400 and get up to 300 miles on a charge.
The company has said it would build its plant in Southern California, but Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes would not confirm whether it had chosen Downey.
"We've been in discussions with other cities" as well, Reyes said. Tesla also has reportedly looked at using an old Boeing Co. factory in Long Beach.
The automaker previously abandoned plans to open factories in San Jose and Albuquerque, leading industry experts to question whether the Downey deal was a sure thing.
"Tesla is a moving target," said George Peterson, president of auto industry consulting firm AutoPacific. "Until these things are absolutely a done deal, they really shouldn't be made public."
Industrial Realty Group declined to comment.
If the council approves the deal, it would provide a much-needed economic boost to Downey, which once was the region's center of high-tech manufacturing but has in recent years become a symbol of that industry's decline in California.
A deal would also open the door to creating the first auto plant in Southern California since 1992, when then-General Motors Corp. closed its Van Nuys plant.
