California Forever’s plan to build a shipyard at Collinsville, in Solano County, has taken a hit as prospective tenant has decided to go with another location.
Santiago Mejia/S.F. Chronicle
California Forever’s bid to recruit a major industrial tenant for a planned waterfront shipbuilding facility in Solano County has slipped away, a significant blow to the ambitious but heavily scrutinized billionaire-backed plan to build an entire new city on thousands of acres of farmland.
Defense startup Saronic Technologies, which designs and builds autonomous water crafts, has chosen Texas — where the company has been considering the Port of Brownsville — over Solano County for its $3.2 billion Port Alpha automated shipyard, according to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations.
The announcement strips California Forever of the prominent prospective tenant it had presented as proof that its controversial development could become a cornerstone of the nation’s shipbuilding revival. The setback comes at a pivotal moment for the larger project to create a new city, though its supporters say the search for a major commercial tenant is far from over.
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The Chronicle reached out to multiple representatives of California Forever, Saronic and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office for comment Wednesday evening, but did not hear back before publication.
Joshua Arce, executive director for the California Alliance of Jobs, which represents thousands of union construction workers across the state, confirmed that “10,000 permanent jobs and thousands of union construction jobs” that would have accompanied Saronic’s Port Alpha shipyard in California are headed to Texas instead. He said “state leaders failed to act with the urgency this project demanded.”
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The Chronicle reached out to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office for comment, which did not respond ahead of publication.
“While Texas moved quickly and aggressively, California could not provide the clear, expedited approval process needed to compete,” Arce said in a statement to the Chronicle. “This is an enormous loss for Solano County, California workers and our state’s manufacturing economy.”
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Saronic had eyed Collinsville’s waterfront for its shipyard project, where it would manufacture autonomous vessels for military and commercial use. At the start of the year, California Forever signed what it described as a 40-year construction labor agreement covering the project’s 70,000 acres. The agreement was forged with the Napa-Solano Building & Construction Trades Council and the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council, and requires that most major construction, including the proposed shipyard, be built under union project labor agreements.
Late last month, the Alliance for Jobs backed legislation to accelerate California Forever’s proposed shipyard, arguing that expediting environmental review and permitting was necessary to keep Saronic’s investment and thousands of jobs from going to another state. That legislation could still advance as a budget trailer bill later this summer, according to sources.
California Forever’s advocates have said that the shipyard plan could attract an estimated $215 billion in construction investment to Solano County while helping offset recent job losses in the region and addressing housing affordability challenges.
But for the Austin-based Saronic, Texas emerged as a top contender. In June, Texas officials approved a $211 million tax-abatement package aimed at persuading the company to locate the project at the Port of Brownsville, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico via a shipping channel.
Arce said that the labor unions “warned that without fast-tracked legislation, these jobs and this investment would go elsewhere.”
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“Unfortuantly that is exactly what happened,” he said, adding that “despite the state’s failure today,” the Alliance will “continue to fight for this project and for California economic progress.”
Saronic isn’t the only option for California Forever’s shipbuilding ambitions. People familiar with the discussions have said that interest for the shipyard plan has come from dozens of manufacturers and shipbuilders, though Saronic is the only employer that has been publicly identified as a contender.
“California Forever is still on track — but a major defense contractor choosing not to locate in California sends a major signal,” one project insider told the Chronicle.
Saronic’s new shipyard will now be built about 20 miles from Starbase, the sprawling SpaceX launch complex that has become a symbol of Texas’ success in luring high-profile technology and manufacturing investment from California. Elon Musk last year announced he was moving SpaceX’s headquarters from Hawthorne in Los Angeles County to South Texas, citing frustrations with California policies, though the company continues to maintain a substantial presence in the state. The move, which coincided with Musk announcing plans to relocate the headquarters of his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) out of San Francisco to Austin, became a flashpoint in California’s debate over its competitiveness for advanced manufacturing and industrial investment.
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