This year, electric car company Tesla Motors will be relocating from San Carlos to Stanford Research Park, which is a mile from Gunn. The move was decided based on Palo Alto’s financially strategic location. “It was easier for us to stay based in a great concentration of innovation and entrepreneurship,” Tesla Motors spokeswoman Rachel Konrad said. “For engineers, Silicon Valley is the epicenter of the global tech industry.”

The car manufacturing facility will offer around 150 new jobs for software engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, graphic designers and lawyers, among others. Tesla also will continue to offer internships to Stanford students. Although it does not hire high school interns, the new corporate headquarters in Palo Alto plans to accommodate guided tours for students and teachers.

In addition to providing work opportunities, the new headquarters will indirectly benefit the school system. “It is likely that with more businesses, property taxes will increase and create more revenue that could ultimately provide more funding for Gunn,” Principal Noreen Likins said.

The move has been met with positive reactions. “I think it’s a good thing for Palo Alto,” Gunn parent and ex-vice president of Tesla’s Vehicle Engineering branch Malcolm Smith wrote in an e-mail. “They will have less than 200 people there, and it’s great for Palo Alto to be known as the clean tech leader.” Likins agreed. “I think it’s a very good idea that Tesla is moving in down the street,” she said. “It’s consistent with what I believe to be our community’s goal of becoming more technologically advanced and green.”

Tesla’s production line has several cars aimed for speed, eco-friendliness and passenger space. They offer the Roadster model, one of the fastest-accelerating sports cars in the world, and will release a seven-passenger sedan in 2011.