Supercharger - Napa, CA - Bel Aire Plaza (LIVE 1 Sep 2023, 12 V3 stalls)

[Mrbrock]

So, in checking the Tesla Find Us map to see if Sonoma had been turned on, noticed a(nother) grey pin in Napa. First thought was upgrade of one of the existing sites but no dice. Next suspect was Target, no dice at the big South Napa Target but bingo at the North Napa Target. Fairly easy on/off 29. It will be nice to have a V3 spot and lots of shopping to occupy your time. Whole foods across the lot which should be about right for a charge session.

 

[Merrill]

Seems somewhat unnecessary would rather see one further north in St Helena or Calistoga.

 

[Mrbrock]

What would the purpose of one in Calistoga or St Helena be? SCs are located along high travel routes on the way to somewhere. For Tesla to put one upvalley means there needs to be demand for someone going through Calistoga to somewhere 50-100 miles away that won’t pass any other SCs. Where is that destination? Lake County? If you are at 90% in Napa, the majority of travelers and thus demand, stay in Napa Valley. The few that go to Sonoma County via a northern route should have plenty of range to get to any of the 101 corridor SCs unless they are spending all week upvalley in which case there are many destination chargers to keep you topped up. Tesla investing $200k+ for the few people who fit that scenario or people who live upvalley but don’t charge at home seems highly unlikely.

Also, have been noticing the Factory Stores SC has been very busy on weekends since it is high tourist season. And that is with less people due to covid staffing issues at many hotels. This is likely what pushed Tesla to explore their relationship with Target to put a V3 site in to release some of the burden on that site. And let’s face it, the south Napa spot is not great. It’s relatively hidden and there’s nothing to do there. It’s great that the site owner wanted a multi energy fueling station and made the SC happen along with everything else but it’s just not a good spot when you have the Factory Stores and now Target as an option.

 

[ChrisJ]

Tesla knows exactly where our cars hang out, and the Bel Air Plaza is loaded with Tesla's so it make sense. Mine is parked up in Bel Air Plaza at least twice a week while I shop, and I routinely stop off on the way home to charge at the Devlin Road location. This new location will allow me to skip that step

 

[goldengate]

Mother. Of. God. Bel Aire Plaza?!? Only the most congested and poorly-designed and highly-utilized parking lot in Napa... Trader Joe's... Whole Foods... Target... OSH... basically every store in Napa is right there. I looked up the permit to see if there's a drawing or location yet... is there any remote area of that parking lot that won't get ICEd regularly? Just looked at Google maps satellite view and maybe the spaces right along Trancas in front of the Target.... Yes it's good that it's off Hwy 29 but this is the last shopping center where I ever thought we would see superchargers.

Except from the Napa Valley Journal:

"Bel Aire Plaza in the city of Napa appears to be the number one location in Napa County that people head to on a typical weekday.
That comes from the soon-to-be released Traffic Behavior Study done for the Napa Valley Transportation Authority. Local public works officials met Thursday for a preview.
“Big data” is how Kevin Johnson of the consulting group Fehr & Peers described the study method that included tracking movements of 736,000 mobile devices. Results reveal a high-tech picture of where traffic goes in the county.
About 353,000 trips take place on an average spring weekday, the study found. The top trip generators are largely the stuff of daily, local life. They are:

- Bel Aire Plaza at 23,000 trips, 7 percent of the total county trips. Seventy-six percent of the trips come from the city of Napa, with an average trip length of 7.3 miles."

 

[Mrbrock]

There are currently a significant amount of spots being occupied by containers for Target and the various phases of remodeling they have been doing over the past year or two. Both along Trancas and between Target and OSH. There are also lots of spots open between OSH, World Market and Target. I would guess those are the two likely locations. Hopefully on Trancas as between Target and OSH requires driving through the whole center. The East side of the center is definitely busy with Whole Foods and Trader Joe's but outside of directly in front of the Target entrances, the rest of the West side of the center is pretty empty most of the day. Somewhere in the red would be my guess. I drive by almost daily so I will check for construction fencing as we get farther into Q4.

 

[goldengate]

There are currently a significant amount of spots being occupied by containers for Target and the various phases of remodeling they have been doing over the past year or two. Both along Trancas and between Target and OSH. There are also lots of spots open between OSH, World Market and Target. I would guess those are the two likely locations. Hopefully on Trancas as between Target and OSH requires driving through the whole center. The East side of the center is definitely busy with Whole Foods and Trader Joe's but outside of directly in front of the Target entrances, the rest of the West side of the center is pretty empty most of the day. Somewhere in the red would be my guess. I drive by almost daily so I will check for construction fencing as we get farther into Q4.

View attachment 715422

Agree, my guess as well... and the good thing about that spot is (as you know) there's a left turn into it off Trancas so you don't have to go to the light, turn left, then do the immediate merge....

 

[ChrisJ]

There are currently a significant amount of spots being occupied by containers for Target and the various phases of remodeling they have been doing over the past year or two. Both along Trancas and between Target and OSH. There are also lots of spots open between OSH, World Market and Target. I would guess those are the two likely locations. Hopefully on Trancas as between Target and OSH requires driving through the whole center. The East side of the center is definitely busy with Whole Foods and Trader Joe's but outside of directly in front of the Target entrances, the rest of the West side of the center is pretty empty most of the day. Somewhere in the red would be my guess. I drive by almost daily so I will check for construction fencing as we get farther into Q4.

View attachment 715422

You beat me to it. Thanks for sharing a map. Those spots along edge along Trancas are rarely busy, especially farther back in the lot. Even on busy days like the week before TG when Whole foods goes crazy.

 

[Mrbrock]

Still no movement on this as the permit hasn’t been issued. I reached out to the building dept. to see if they could share the permit but since it has not been issued it is not public yet. Once it has been issued anyone can go down and ask to look at the plans but it didn’t sound like they’d send them electronically. I guess they have til March 31st to complete on time but would assume they get the permit issued by/around the end of the year.

 

[Mrbrock]

Still no activity on this, no permit issued yet. Having been in the center a lot the last couple of weeks, I fear that the location will be between OSH and Target. The lower left section of my red outline houses two large gas mains so might be an issue for high voltage/amperage electrical in the vicinity (and a fire hydrant). Also, Target's transformer is between it and OSH (OSH's as well) so that might be the easiest as far as electrical hookups.

 

[Mrbrock]

Still no permit issued for this project but I noticed some pavement marking and flagging in the strip between Trancas and the sidewalk yesterday on a trip to Target. Maybe they are going to try to put these right on Trancas (easiest access). Look like normal pre-construction marking/flagging?

 

[Mrbrock]

Tesla's Find Us map has updated this to Q2 2022 so we might not see any activity for another month or so.

 

[Mrbrock]

An encroachment permit is pending (applied 2/23) for Traffic Control to bore to install EV station. Must need to tie into power under Trancas and bore under sidewalk and other utilities to get power to the proposed location. An earlier encroachment permit for CCTV inspections was applied for on 2/10 so starting to see some activity here.

 

[Mrbrock]

An encroachment permit for traffic control for CCTV inspections has been approved today. Likely relating to the encroachment permit for traffic control to bore for EV Station which is still under review. Once they see what they are dealing with and then get the permit for TC for boring, then they will get the main building permit issued to build the site. A little over 3 months left to get this done on the current timeline.

 

[Mrbrock]

This permit for cctv inspections has been issued. Things keep moving along. The boring permit is still under review and main permit hasn’t been issued yet.

 

[Mohain]

New update is now Q4 2022

 

[Mrbrock]

New update is now Q4 2022

Looks like they are running into issues getting the permit for traffic control to bore power into the site.

 

[ChrisJ]

I was there yesterday and extensive temporary fencing has gone up in the location where I think the chargers are going to go. There's also been a lot of sidewalk concrete work along the Trancas outside the the plaza.

 

[Mrbrock]

I was there yesterday and extensive temporary fencing has gone up in the location where I think the chargers are going to go. There's also been a lot of sidewalk concrete work along the Trancas outside the the plaza.

Cool, I was in town a couple weeks ago and noticed nothing new. Permit issued 9/1 so quick work. The fencing is along trancas south of Target?

@bmah

 

[ChrisJ]

Yes, Target side. There's also some in the middle of that lot running perpendicular. Probably for staging. I'll try and get some photos next week.