The Resurrection of the Montgomery Mall (Bethesda) Supercharger

[Ride Long]

Reported yesterday:
Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row: Tesla Supercharger stations to be constructed at Westfield Montgomery Mall (Photos)

TWO Supercharger areas in Montgomery Mall: one by Nordstrom and one by the Arc Light cinemas (basically on opposite sides of the complex).

The former Supercharger on the lower level by Nordstrom is certainly missed by me (I work a half-mile away).

Goal is opening by EOY 2018. Let's hope.

Paul

 

[Chuq]

Now listed in supercharge.info as two separate sites. They're over 320 m / 1000 ft apart - there are closer sites than that which are listed separately so hopefully that is appropriate!

 

[Sonny Daze]

They're over 320 m / 1000 ft apart - there are closer sites than that which are listed separately so hopefully that is appropriate!

There is already an existing Supercharger - Bethesda, MD thread which might be a better choice for the discuss link. @BlueShift

 

[republic]

There is a proposed SC in downtown Bethesda on the 2018 map. This would be a separate site and warrants its own thread. If we want to use an existing thread, I’d recommend the one for the original two-stall charger.

 

[P85Dave]

Reported yesterday:
Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row: Tesla Supercharger stations to be constructed at Westfield Montgomery Mall (Photos)

TWO Supercharger areas in Montgomery Mall: one by Nordstrom and one by the Arc Light cinemas (basically on opposite sides of the complex).

The former Supercharger on the lower level by Nordstrom is certainly missed by me (I work a half-mile away).

Goal is opening by EOY 2018. Let's hope.

Paul

Location seems SO MUCH better! The previous location was way too congested in the parking area and the showroom also needed those chargers to charge their own cars. I hope they position them well away from the mall entrance to prevent ICE'ng

 

[CHRGIT]

There is a proposed SC in downtown Bethesda on the 2018 map. This would be a separate site and warrants its own thread. If we want to use an existing thread, I’d recommend the one for the original two-stall charger.

This is probably the proposed Bethesda location. The indicator is on the town name, it has no relavance to the exact location within that town.

 

[Chuq]

There is already an existing Supercharger - Bethesda, MD thread which might be a better choice for the discuss link. @BlueShift

If a forum admin decided to merge this thread into that one, it would make the most sense, but until then the best link would be where discussion is actually happening

 

[jdo]

Just was at the mall yesterday, no activity seen there.

 

[Rockyb]

Almost 8 months. Must be approaching a record.

 

[jdo]

Almost 8 months. Must be approaching a record.

Oh, no. Still a long ways to go to beat Ft. Stockton.

Supercharger - Fort Stockton, Texas

 

[RTPEV]

Oh, no. Still a long ways to go to beat Ft. Stockton.

Supercharger - Fort Stockton, Texas

Pfffft....Statesville's got that beat by a month or two: Supercharger - Statesville, NC

Although to be fair, that one is likely dead once they opened an alternate in Hickory, NC, but yet it refuses to die on supercharge.info

 

[jdo]

Pfffft....Statesville's got that beat by a month or two: Supercharger - Statesville, NC

Although to be fair, that one is likely dead once they opened an alternate in Hickory, NC, but yet it refuses to die on supercharge.info

Nice. Although if the site's dead, it should be DQ'd from contention.

 

[CHRGIT]

Almost 8 months. Must be approaching a record.

IMHO the clock on this site doesn't start until a permit is issued. All of the above was based on a blog posting. The blog also stated the end of 2018 was the target date.

 

[mociaf9]

IMHO the clock on this site doesn't start until a permit is issued. All of the above was based on a blog posting. The blog also stated the end of 2018 was the target date.

This site had 2 building permits issued in March but they are currently (and have been for a while) under a Stop Work order until some paperwork gets filed with the building office. When I spoke to one of the permitting facilitators in that office they said it had something to do with the bid documents needing to be updated. Which, assuming I heard them correctly (not a given), I took to mean some documentation about who the contractors would be and possibly their licenses, etc. My sense of the project was that this hasn't been remedied either because it's not a current priority for Tesla or because it has somehow fallen through the cracks. Maybe due to personnel changes? But that is pure speculation. [This is the second site for which I've encountered pretty much the same thing. A building Permit sitting in the building office ready or all but ready, only needing a simple paperwork fix, and they don't know why Tesla has been AWOL. The other site being Webster, TX--just outside Houston's city limits to the southeast--where I was told that their building office has repeatedly tried and failed to get ahold of anyone from Tesla and that no one returns their phone calls when they leave a message. Lol.]

To find the permits for this location you can go to:
Montgomery County's data portal, then enter "Commercial Permit" in the big search box at the top of the page. Select that data set, then click on the "View Data". Once that loads, there will be a new search bar below the entire data portal's header bar. In that search box, which says "Find in this Dataset" type in "Tesla". That will bring up 3 listings the bottom 2 are for the current Supercharger build (the top is from the previous install which has since been removed). It shows:

• Commercial permit #826654- 12 stalls in the Northwest parking lot.
• Commercial permit #826658- 10 stalls in the Southeast parking lot (the permit description misidentifies it as 12 stalls, but from the rest of the hardware you can tell it's really 10).

You can see that the permits were applied for on 2018-01-31 and issued on 2018-03-22.

 

[mociaf9]

(Sorry for the double post)

If you want a bit more information, you can then take those permit numbers and go to the Montgomery Co. Department of Permitting Services' online application search form. I've already set up the hyperlink to select search by "Application Type and Number". But below that box, under the "Search Criteria" tab, select "Commercial Building" from the drop down menu in the "Application type" box, then enter one of the above permit numbers (without the # sign). Once it brings up the details, you can expand the Reviews section at the bottom to see that they've either passed or been waived on everything but have a "Conditional Approval" for the final plan review. Whatever exactly that conditional was (i.e. the paperwork issue I mentioned in the comment above), Tesla used up their grace period time limit to remedy it, and hence have the Stop Work order/status currently. Whenever Tesla actually decides to move forward with this build (and I assume they will eventually), then as soon as they clear up the paperwork issue and probably pay a small idiot fee, they'll be good to go.

[BTW, a possibly "good" reason for Tesla to get themselves in such an indefinite hold situation could be that a building permit will usually expire after a set time period once it's fully issued. You can't just sit on them indefinitely. So, if they know they are going to have to put a project on hold such that they'd likely run out of the allowed time, this maneuver could make it so that they don't have to start all the way back at the beginning of the permitting application process once they're ready to move forward.]

 

[Big Earl]

Does anybody know what's going on at Montgomery Mall (other than nothing)? Gaithersburg has been packed lately and these 24 stalls sure would be helpful.

 

[mociaf9]

Does anybody know what's going on at Montgomery Mall (other than nothing)? Gaithersburg has been packed lately and these 24 stalls sure would be helpful.

Montgomery Co.'s data portal is still showing the permits being under a "Stop Work" order since sometime after they were initially issued in March 2018. At this point, I would guess that there's some external issue (possibly with the mall?) that is slowly being worked out and until it is resolved Tesla isn't going to revive the permits. But that's just guesswork.

 

[Big Earl]

Thanks. I'm wondering if it would be productive for owners to reach out to the mall, the county and Tesla to try and push things along.

 

[clydeiii]

Probably would be best to start with Tesla, but is there even a way to contact their Supercharger division?

(As of 3/27/2019, both are still in Stop Work status.)

 

[Big Earl]

Probably would be best to start with Tesla, but is there even a way to contact their Supercharger division?

(As of 3/27/2019, both are still in Stop Work status.)

email [email protected]

You're more likely to get a response from the county.