Tesla sales gallery in Portsmouth to become reality after final approval

PORTSMOUTH — The owners of Portsmouth Green recently received the last land-use board approvals needed to lease space at its mixed-use development off Route 1 for a new Tesla sales gallery.

Tesla is known for its high-end electric vehicles priced $38,000-plus and up, and was co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, who also leads SpaceX, Neuralink and X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Portsmouth Planning Board unanimously voted at a recent meeting to approve an amended site plan and conditional use permit for parking so the Tesla sales gallery can open at 2454 Lafayette Road in the Portsmouth Green.

Tesla will lease a roughly 3,200-square-foot space for the sales gallery from Waterstone Properties, which owns Portsmouth Green, according to city documents and comments made by attorney John Bosen, who represents them.

It will be located in what is now an empty storefront next to McKinnon's Supermarket.

“We do think this is a good use for the space. We also think it will be well received by the public,” Bosen said previously. “The Tesla folks are excited to be here. I was excited working on this project.”

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During the recent Planning Board meeting, attorney Austin Mikolaities, who works for Bosen & Associates, explained a Tesla sales gallery is "a small, new-age gallery for motor vehicles, electric vehicles.”

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There are scheduled to be four Tesla electric vehicles on site, two inside the storefront, and two outside, which will be used for test drives, he said.

“Our generation went to a car dealer and there was a big floor plan and a whole bunch of cars to choose from. That’s not the model now,” Bosa said. “There’s basically four Tesla models that are available now to a consumer. They can be changed online with variations.”

The Portsmouth Green owners previously received a special exemption in October from the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment needed to move the project along.

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Customers can test drive and ultimately select their Tesla at the Portsmouth dealership, according to Bosen, but delivery would take place at a Tesla service and delivery site. The nearest one is located in Peabody, Massachusetts.

“You buy a car here, you buy it online essentially, on the online portal and it’s delivered to Peabody,” he said.

As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Musk leads all product design, engineering and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products and solar energy products, according to the Tesla website.

“Since the company’s inception in 2003, Tesla’s mission has been to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy,” the website states.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Tesla sales gallery in Portsmouth NH gains final approval