purchases of $1 billion<\/a>, the project has yet to break ground and has been beset by classic California issues like mountains of bureaucracy, plodding legislation, political infighting as well as lawsuits and surly locals who are skeptical of the project.<\/p>\nThose hurdles took center stage Friday after defense contractor Saronic Technologies announced it would build its $3.2 billion \u201cPort Alpha\u201d autonomous shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, instead of Solano County \u2014 a project expected to create 10,000 jobs.<\/p>\n
Workers wearing welding masks and protective gear weld metal, creating bright sparks in a factory setting. California Forever<\/p>\n
Illustration of the upcoming California Forever property featuring a bustling town square with people, shops, and trees. California Forever<\/p>\n
Jim Wunderman speaking at a podium with a microphone. California Forever<\/p>\n
\u201cSolano County was one of the great shipbuilding regions. This is the time when the United States is ready to invest in a new era of producing naval vessels and commercial vessels at scale and if we don\u2019t move quickly, we\u2019re gonna miss the opportunity,\u201d Jim Wunderman, Head of Public Affairs, California Forever said.<\/p>\n
California governor candidate Steve Hilton slammed state leaders over the news \u2014 calling Saronic\u2019s departure a massive blow and called on the state to fix its anti-business stance before even more companies leave the Golden State.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project was driven out of California because of the same old story \u2013 the impossibility for businesses to deal with the bloat, bureaucracy, regulations and the anti-business attitude,\u201d Hilton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A group of people wearing hard hats and safety vests stand in a field, looking towards distant hills, with one person pointing. California Forever<\/p>\n
Illustration of people having a picnic and bicycling in a park-like setting. California Forever<\/p>\n
Illustration of a lively baseball plaza at sunset, with a large screen showing a game. California Forever<\/p>\n
The stakes are high for the state to help usher in the city being built from scratch \u2013 the project is backed by Flannery Associates, a company funded by a group of prominent Silicon Valley investors, including philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, former Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, venture-capital titan Marc Andreessen and the billionaire Collison brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe there is great opportunity here. There\u2019s a lot of promise with our young people. There\u2019s a lot of space and land that would be beautiful to build on and build a future on,\u201d Jermaine Dowdell, NorCal Carpenters Union said about the project. <\/p>\n
In an interview with The California Post, two of the project\u2019s legislative allies said losing Saronic has supercharged their efforts to craft a bill that could streamline the bureaucratic and policy hurdles that led to Saronic\u2019s departure.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Saronic decision was a disappointment, but it\u2019s just the beginning of the opportunity, not the end,\u201d said Darrell Steinberg, a former mayor of Sacramento and former Democratic state senator. \u201cTheir decision to go to Texas instead of California is a cautionary tale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Map of the United States with shipyards on the East Coast and Gulf, and one proposed shipyard in Solano. California Forever<\/p>\n
Jan Sramek, founder and CEO of California Forever, speaking to construction workers in a field. California Forever<\/p>\n
Robert Hertzberg, a former Democratic majority leader in the state senate, said he has fielded calls from other shipbuilders interested in filling the void left by Saronic \u2013 provided the state can cut the red tape.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked to them and we\u2019ve told them what we\u2019re doing and they said \u2018if you get this done, we\u2019re coming\u2019\u201d Hertzberg said, referencing the bill he said is in the works.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
California Forever first made headlines after the billionaire-backed effort quietly purchasing more than 50,000 acres of farmland surrounding Travis Air Force Base through Flannery Associates.<\/p>\n
Map of California with areas owned or contracted by California Forever, marking a \u201cNew City\u201d near Solano Shipyard. California Forever<\/p>\n
Illustration of the California Forever planned community in Solano County. California Forever<\/p>\n
The clandestine buying spree stirred controversy before it was revealed that Jan Sramek, a Czech-born former Goldman Sachs trader, had spent years signing on investors and orchestrating the land buying campaign and intended to erect a new city.<\/p>\n
The scope of the proposed city is enormous. Early concepts tout a community that could have 400,000 residents and hundreds of thousands of homes built over several decades alongside over 100 million square feet of commercial and industrial areas, planning documents show.<\/p>\n
Proponents say the proposed city will help revive the Golden State\u2019s hollowed out manufacturing sector and in the process create thousands of jobs. Those workers, California Forever says, will be able to live close to their jobs in an area where little urban development exists today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that California can build great things once again,\u201d\u00a0the California Forever\u2019s website<\/a> states.<\/p>\nIllustration of a vibrant street scene with people walking, dining outdoors, and cycling past shops and a theater. California Forever<\/p>\n
California Forever has sought to attract advanced manufacturing companies to create thousands of construction and permanent industrial jobs in sectors like chip manufacturing. It has proposed building a shipbuilding facility along the Sacramento River \u2013 restoring the region\u2019s former glory days as a center for maritime manufacturing and defense-related industry.<\/p>\n
Opponents like Former Fairfield Mayor Catherine \u201cCat\u201d Moy, who for years was at the forefront of efforts to build the city, have argued California Forever is asking for special treatment from Sacramento for its development.<\/p>\n
Moy said in an interview with The Post that California Forever has struggled to win support from local agricultural communities that worry about the project\u2019s impact on farmers\u2019 access to water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Forever \u2014 a futuristic mega-project aimed at reviving American heavy industry \u2014 has tantalized its billionaire-backers while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[184,7,9,8,4182,388,11853,17382,3586],"class_list":["post-404429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-metro","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-steve-hilton","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}