45500 Fremont Blvd, Fremont, California
Heading north on Highway 880 in California’s East Bay, the buildings lining the road tell a fascinating tale of the nation’s economic history. Just north of San Jose the colossal corporate campus of Cisco lurks to the left off E. Tasman Drive. The Seagate plant, just south of the Mission Boulevard onramp, is the former home of Solyndra was the once promising solar company. But the most interesting building in the East Bay can be found at 45500 Fremont Boulevard, now the assembly plant for Tesla Motors.
Tesla is far from the first occupant of this facility, which may be the only building in the Bay Area that can boast its own episode of “This American Life.” Built first in 1962 as a General Motors Assembly plant, the most fascinating era in this complex started in 1984 with the founding of New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI). An international joint venture, NUMMI was set up by both Toyota and General Motors. Toyota wanted to have a physical presence in the United States for manufacturing while GM was curious to learn about Toyota’s manufacturing processes, including its celebrated kaitzen philosophy of continuous improvement.
The two companies ended up producting more 8 million vehicles together, and boasted 8,000 vehicles a week rolling off the line for almost two decades. At one point, the factory employed 4,700 people and the cultural changes that GM sought, namely great cooperation with its workforce, process and product improvements and increased efficiency were achieved, but when GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009 during the Great Recession, they pulled the plug on NUMMI. A year later, unwilling to operate the plant solo, Toyota closed up and moved North American production to its Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi plant in Blue Springs.
Two years later, Elon Musk and Tesla Motors stepped in to begin domestic production of the Model S on the site. With more than 200 sophisticated robots working alongside 1,000 employees, its the very model of modern manufacturing, with some of its key employees coming from the NUMMI era.
Fremont is truly the industrial and manufacturing heart of the Silicon Valley, and has managed to stay abreast of the massive changes in the economy by deploying intelligent economic development and marketing efforts, championing adaptive reuse of older facilities and maintaining a robust fire protection and reponse plan. We’re proud to serve Fremont with OpenCounter and OpenCounter:Zoning and look forward to watching the next generation of companies build the future in Fremont.
