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In a lesson in flexing business connections, Albuquerque landed a carmaker.

And it came thanks to a tip from the public and some help in the space exploration industry.

Tesla Motors of San Carlos, Calif., announced Monday it will break ground in April on a West Side manufacturing plant for its upcoming WhiteStar, a four-door, electric-powered sedan. The factory will employ about 400 people, with plans to roll out the cars in 2009.

"We wanted to be in a state that is as committed as Tesla is to developing clean energy and addressing global climate change," Elon Musk, Tesla's chairman and a a co-founder of the PayPal Internet payment site, said Monday in a statement. "We found that leadership in New Mexico."

For city and state economic development leaders, it was a process that started in early December.

Ted Jurney, a development officer with the United Way of Central New Mexico, had been brainstorming ideas with a friend about bringing electric car racing to Albuquerque.

Their talk led to reading about Tesla's search for a manufacturing facility for the WhiteStar.

"Wouldn't it be great if they moved here?" Jurney recalls thinking at the time.

So on Dec. 7, he sent an e-mail to Fred Mondragon, director of the city's economic development department, asking if Tesla was on the city's radar screen.

It wasn't - yet. Mondragon said he notified Gary Tonjes, executive director of Albuquerque Economic Development, a business recruiter.

Tonjes' staff, led by his business development director, Debra Inman, sent a proposal to Tesla officials in California. After subsequent calls and e-mails, Tonjes was getting worried. News reports were indicating that the company was narrowing its choices. Albuquerque had gotten a late start, he said.

So Tonjes began scouring the names on Tesla's board of directors. He found that Musk, the company's chairman, was also on the board of the X Prize Foundation, the group that hosts the annual X Prize Cup spaceflight competition in Las Cruces.

The next call was made to Rick Homans, the state's economic development secretary.

"I called Homans and said, `Hey, do you know this guy? If you don't, can you get to him through your other contacts there?' " Tonjes said.

Homans said the connection to Tesla was made through Peter Dimandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation. And on Jan. 8, Homans sent an e-mail to Musk asking Tesla to consider the state's offer.

"He agreed that night . . . as long as we put forward a concrete proposal," Homans said.

The "concrete proposal" the state offered - a package of government infrastructure investments and business tax credits - joined with Albuquerque's moderate cost of living to win Tesla away from its competitors, Flagstaff and the Bay Area city of Pittsburg, Calif.

Tesla will invest $35 million in a 150,000-square-foot plant on the West Side, just off I-40 next to the Tempur-Pedic mattress plant.

The 400 people the company plans to hire initially will earn $24,000 to $100,000 a year, with every employee getting benefits that include stock options, said Darryl Siry, head of marketing and communications for Tesla.

Siry said Tesla was considering factors such as a low cost of living to help lure employees, as well as a location that would keep the cost of shipping the cars' parts from Taiwan and Thailand moderate.

Albuquerque, he said, offered the best balance in that equation.

On top of that is a package of incentives that include:

A pledge from Gov. Bill Richardson of $3.5 million in capital outlay money from the current Legislature and another $3.5 million next year. The money would be given to Bernalillo County as building and infrastructure investment. Richardson also hatched plans to investigate adding 100 WhiteStar cars to the state's auto fleet in a two-year period.

A $600,000 pledge from the city to help pay for infrastructure.

The state Economic Development Department is offering incentives including tax credits for paying high wages, a manufacturer's investment tax credit, and access to the state's program that helps defray the cost of job training.

SunCal Cos., the firm that recently purchased the 57,000-acre Westland Development property on the West Side, will provide 75 acres of land abutting the plant's site for a future Tesla expansion, the state said in a news release.

Local economic development leaders on Monday praised Jurney for his initiative in providing Mondragon with the tip.

"I called (Jurney) and thanked him for what he did in getting to us about this project," Tonjes said. "He shared that which allowed us to then have the information to move forward."

Jurney said he was glad to be a part of the process.

"I can't tell you how exciting that is. That's the most exciting thing to happen in a long time," he added. "To go from talking and dreaming to seeing something like this happening, I think it's so very cool. It really is."