Sandoval says no Faraday deal yet; legislators told to prepare for special session

CARSON CITY — Gov. Brian Sandoval said Tuesday that negotiations with the electric car manufacturer Faraday Future continue but that no agreement has been reached.

But Nevada lawmakers have been told to prepare for a possible special session to start Dec. 16 in Carson City, though no official call for a session has been issued. Multiple legislators told the Review-Journal an announcement from the governor is expected this week.

"There are certain issues that need to be resolved and hopefully they get resolved sooner rather than later," the governor said in comments after a Board of Examiners meeting.

"I can't say who is favored and who is not," Sandoval said of the competition for the $1 billion plant. "I do know that the conversations are continuing.

Sandoval said the reason the Legislature would need to be called into session if a deal with Faraday is reached is because of the tax abatement issue.

"The issue is this: we have our existing abatement laws and economic development laws; we have the laws that we approved during the special session a year ago associated with Tesla," he said. "This is something that would fall in-between."

Sandoval said that if a deal with Faraday is reached and a special session is called, he is leaning toward focusing solely on the car manufacturer agreement.

"It is not a certainty that there will be a special session," he said. "I wouldn't be honest with you if I didn't say we were getting a lot of phone calls on that. But I'm focused on, that if there were a special session, on just that."

Faraday has said it plans to invest $1 billion in an estimated 3 million-square-foot plant that would employ about 4,500 workers.

Faraday's arrival would be a boon for struggling North Las Vegas, the Southern Nevada region as a whole and Nevada's mission to diversify its economy from one heavily dependent on service-oriented jobs to higher paying high-tech industries.

Anticipation has been building for months that Nevada was high on Faraday's list of potential sites. The company was also looking at locations in California, Louisiana and Georgia.

Faraday Future burst onto the automotive scene over the summer, creating speculation simply by how much there was to speculate about. The company is based in Gardena, Calif., and has ties to Chinese investors, according to media reports, but has yet to name a CEO.

But the company does have a leadership team, comprised of many former executives at rival Tesla Motors Inc., which last year began construction of a $5 billion battery factory in Northern Nevada.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801. Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Find her on Twitter: @SandraChereb