California Endlessly, the billionaire-backed group proposing a futuristic megacity within the Bay Space, has spent months holding weekly conferences with native officers over plans for an enormous new shipyard — but it oddly by no means submitted even a preliminary software for the challenge, a prime county official instructed The California Publish.
“We haven’t ever acquired a pre-application or a challenge proposal for a shipbuilding challenge within the Collinsville space,” Debbie Vaughn, assistant county administrator for Solano County, instructed The Publish in an unique interview.
The disclosure comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and California Endlessly — bankrolled by tech billionaires together with Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, Michael Moritz and Patrick Collison —feverishly push for particular laws geared toward jump-starting the controversial growth earlier than lawmakers adjourn on the finish of August.
Vaughn mentioned county officers have been assembly with California Endlessly weekly because the starting of the yr over the proposed shipyard, as soon as pitched as a potential house for protection startup Saronic’s $3.2 billion Port Alpha challenge.
The shipyard proposal promised to create 1000’s of latest, good-paying jobs within the space — however the startup abruptly bailed for Texas final month.
The county laid out an expedited path by way of the conventional approval course of, with an aggressive schedule envisioning a draft environmental influence report inside months, Vaughn mentioned.
However California Endlessly by no means submitted the challenge wanted to start it.
“There was nothing submitted, so this by no means occurred,” Vaughn mentioned. “I don’t understand how else to say it. There was by no means a challenge submitted.”
California Endlessly pushed again on the county’s characterization of the proposed fast-track, arguing it nonetheless would have left Saronic dealing with an unacceptable timeline and years of potential litigation.
Officers instructed The Publish that the county’s standard course of included roughly 9 to 12 months to organize environmental critiques — adopted by the opportunity of years of litigation underneath the California Environmental High quality Act.
That uncertainty was unacceptable for potential employers, significantly Saronic, which repeatedly communicated the necessity to break floor on an autonomous shipyard in 2026, based on California Endlessly.
Saronic finally introduced final month that it will construct Port Alpha in Brownsville, Texas, dealing a serious blow to California Endlessly’s plans.
California Endlessly is now desperately looking for an avenue for laws.
The builders — who not solely need to create a shipyard, but additionally a producing hub and a brand new, walkable metropolis — have enlisted ex-Democratic legislative leaders Darrell Steinberg and Bob Hertzberg to hitch its six-figure lobbying spree in Sacramento.
Late final month, The Publish revealed that Newsom and California Endlessly CEO Jan Sramek quietly met within the governor’s workplace on April 1. That report got here on the heels of Dee Dee Myers, the director of the governor’s GO-Biz financial growth workplace, issuing a memo urging help for California Endlessly’s ambitions as an enormous alternative so as to add jobs and housing — in addition to a matter of nationwide safety.
However it’s nonetheless unclear which, if any, lawmaker will step as much as introduce California Endlessly’s particular laws.
Beth Rimbey, a spokesperson for state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, whose district consists of the proposed growth, instructed The Publish that California Endlessly’s proposal continues to be shrouded in secrecy.
“The senator has been very vocal about wanting a completely clear, Democratic course of,” Rimbey mentioned.
Cabaldon and different legislators have nonetheless not seen draft language for the laws, based on Rimbey. The senator additionally has issues about builders counting on an environmental report practically twenty years outdated.
“Everybody has been sitting down for a similar conferences and talks, and he’s retaining his thoughts open,” Rimbey mentioned. “However numerous his points haven’t modified with the challenge.”
Rimbey mentioned Cabaldon needs to see a shipyard constructed, however he argues it must be finished accurately, with transparency round prices and the potential influence on the native setting.
“This chatter of ‘let’s simply get began’ and determine all of it out later — to [Cabaldon’s] level, you may have these environmental legal guidelines put in place for precisely this cause,” Rimbey mentioned. “These are delicate waterways.”
Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Suisun Metropolis), whose district could possibly be house to the event, has not been requested by California Endlessly to pursue laws this yr, based on her workplace.
Whereas Wilson is working to make Solano County extra aggressive for shipbuilding, her workplace mentioned, she believes annexation is a neighborhood matter that ought to stay topic to current legal guidelines and due course of, which can imply she is against California Endlessly’s meant laws.
California Endlessly officers mentioned they’ve robust a working relationship with Wilson and intend to proceed offering her with details about the challenge.
Mark Reed, chairman of the Solano County Republican Occasion and a fierce California Endlessly opponent, mentioned The Publish’s interview with the county administrator bolsters suspicions he already had in regards to the shipyard proposal.
“We knew from the start the shipyard proposal was by no means a severe factor,” Reed mentioned.
Saronic did publicly determine California as one of many places nonetheless competing for Port Alpha as just lately as June, however Reed alleged California Endlessly was merely “utilizing this to get public help for the town constructed up.”
Reed and others mentioned the shipyard and Saronic’s determination have develop into a distraction from the bigger struggle over California Endlessly’s deliberate metropolis, which might require billions in infrastructure prices to offer electrical energy, water and roadways.
The dialog on the town, nevertheless, is now deeply embedded in conversations about particular laws, as California Endlessly famous in a weblog publish final week that new housing is a requirement for the shipyard and a producing hub.
“There was no dialog final yr in any respect about linking that laws to the town,” Vaughn instructed The Publish.
California Endlessly has individually sought to advance the town by annexing its land into Suisun Metropolis, permitting the proposal to maneuver by way of the town and LAFCO approval course of relatively than a countywide vote.
The Silicon Valley-backed enterprise has spent years buying tens of 1000’s of acres in jap Solano County and desires to construct a walkable new metropolis that might finally home about 400,000 individuals. It’s additionally spent a whole lot of 1000’s lobbying Sacramento officers whereas cozying as much as Newsom’s administration.
However with out a legislative breakthrough or the land finally being rezoned by way of the native course of, the billionaire-backed growth faces a for much longer street — and dangers changing into one of the speculative actual property investments in current California historical past.
