You Can Now Test-Drive a Tesla in Red Hook

RED HOOK, BROOKLYN — In the late 19th century, the firehouse at 199 Van Brundt St. housed the first Brooklyn Fire Department company at which all members were salaried. A picture on the building shows firefighters from 1886 standing proudly in front of their horse-drawn fire truck.

Starting Friday, visitors will be able to stroll two blocks from that location to a former industrial building at 160 Van Brundt St. and test-drive an $80,000 Tesla.

The electric car company’s new showroom and service center will open to the public this week, not even a month after news broke of its impending arrival.

Two of the company’s vehicles — the Model X and Model S — will be available for test driving and purchasing. You cannot, however, go through with a same-day sale, as every car Tesla sells is made-to-order.

The models start at $80,000 and $70,000 respectively, although there’s a $7,500 federal credit for electric vehicles that can be taken off the sticker price. The company plans to unveil a $35,000 model in March, but it won’t start producing it until 2017, CEO Elon Musk has confirmed.

The Red Hook outpost will also provide service on Teslas — a gleaming batch of which sat Tuesday afternoon in a workshop at the new facility that was still receiving finishing touches.

Company spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said that between 16 and 20 technicians and around 12 salespeople have been hired, all of whom are New York residents. (None were made available for an interview on a tour of the grounds Tuesday. Georgeson said this was company policy.)

Tesla is currently expanding its network of charging stations in public New York garages, Georgeson said, and plans to complete 105 stations in Manhattan by the end of March.

The spokeswoman said that “several thousand” Tesla owners live in the state of New York, although she couldn’t break down ownership statistics more locally. Asked about Tesla’s sales goals, Georgeson said the company aims to “catalyze a mass market for sustainable transportation” — whether through its own vehicles or those of competitors.

The storefronts along rapidly changing Van Brunt Street, now including Tesla, are in stark juxtaposition. Among Tesla’s nearest neighbors are a furniture upholsterer and a window supplier; walk three blocks south, however, and you'll find the trendy new factory for Raaka Virgin Chocolate.

Raaka's marketing director, William Mullan, 26, said the six-year-old company signed a 15-year-old lease when it moved into its 65 Seabring St. location in 2014, and therefore won't have to worry about changing rents.

“It seems like there are a lot of artisan makers down Van Brunt with high-price-point products,” Mullan said.

“Tesla fits [into the area] more than people would expect,” he said. He called the futuristic car company's arrival another step in “the Williamsburg-ification of Red Hook and the rest of New York.”

Raaka’s store, which serves as a production and sales space, gets around 10 walk-in visitors on weekdays, and as many as 30 on weekends, Mullan said.

He hopes those numbers will go up now that Tesla is in town.

“But obviously,” Mullan said, “we don’t want everyone priced out of the neighborhood.”