Tesla dealership opens in Babies R Us' former Westbury digs

A new Tesla dealership has taken over a hard-to-fill space in Westbury, the landlord said.

The approximately 50,000-square-foot electric vehicle showroom and service center is in a former Babies R Us space at 1350 Corporate Dr. in Roosevelt Raceway Center.

The Tesla facility opened for sales on Dec. 14 and service on Jan. 2, said Amanda Rotella, general manager. She directed further questions to Tesla’s Austin, Texas-based corporate office, which did not respond to Newsday’s requests for comment.

A 427,000-square-foot shopping center on 47 acres, Roosevelt Raceway Center’s tenants include The Home Depot, Michaels, Food Bazaar supermarket, PGA Tour Superstore, and Applebee’s.

The space that Babies R Us vacated in 2018 is a freestanding building. The closest store to it is The Home Depot, about 600 feet away.

The location and deep width of the former Babies R Us space made it hard to fill and subdivide, said Michael X. Mattone, chief executive officer of Mattone Investors, the College Point-based real estate development firm that owns the Westbury shopping center.

“Trying to backfill a 50,000-square-foot space — that’s a pretty limited number of uses for that space. Tesla was quite an opportunity for us,” he said.

The construction work to renovate the Westbury building cost $1.2 million, according to building documents submitted to the Town of Hempstead.

The Tesla dealership also sells solar energy and storage equipment, said Aaron J. Fleishaker, executive vice president at Mattone Investors, who added that a ribbon-cutting event is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.

The Westbury facility is the fourth Tesla location on Long Island.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.