California Forever signed a 40-year construction labor agreement covering nearly all major building activity in its proposed new city, which includes a shipyard and advanced manufacturing park. Approvals for the project are pending.
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The agreement between California Forever, the Napa-Solano Building Trades Council and the Northern California Carpenters Union would cover construction across roughly 70,000 acres in Solano County.
Economic analysis from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute estimates the 40-year build-out would support about 17,000 construction jobs annually, most of them union positions with average annual compensation of $108K.
The project would generate $16B in annual tax revenue and $215B in private investment. The projections underscore the scale of the proposal and the financial stakes as California Forever seeks final approvals to move forward.
A commitment to union labor ups the stakes, as it greatly increases construction costs, an oft-cited issue by developers for why projects don’t pencil.
The project is backed by tech billionaires, including CEO Jan Sramek, the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, and venture capitalists and philanthropists like John Doerr and Laurene Powell Jobs, who envision a walkable city roughly the size of Oakland.
The project also has a variety of large companies on board as consultants, including CBRE and JLL.
California Forever announced the first phase of development, the 2,100-acre advanced manufacturing park, in July. The first phase will also include residential and entertainment capabilities in tandem with the industrial build-out. The plan is to put up 150,000 homes for 400,000 people directly adjacent to the Solano Foundry.
The project has been a long time coming but has faced scrutiny for the way the land was acquired and the nationality of some of the buyers, given the land's proximity to an Air Force base.
The organization spent $1B through a limited liability company, acquiring 68,000 acres of mostly grassland. Locals pushed back on a 2024 ballot measure that would have rezoned 17,000 acres at once, causing the project's sponsors to withdraw the measure.
The site is approximately 60 miles from San Francisco and 35 miles from Sacramento. Building a city from scratch is a heavy lift. To make it successful, California Forever’s founders will have to find a way to jump-start an economy from nothing to lure developers and, ultimately, residents.
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