California Forever loses potential $3.2 billion shipyard project to Texas
Despite hiring two Capitol veterans as lobbyists and earning Gov. Gavin Newsom’s tacit support, the billionaire-backed group California Forever lost a potential shipbuilder client to Texas after trying to lure the company to Solano County to anchor California Forever’s decade-long plan of building a new city in the outer East Bay.
Austin-based Saronic Technologies, which builds autonomous maritime vessels, chose to locate its $3.2 billion Port Alpha shipyard at the Port of Brownsville over Solano County after teasing the news Wednesday night. The San Francisco Chronicle first confirmed Saronic’s plans, which come after Texas officials approved a $211 million abatement package to entice the company to locate the shipyard in South Texas.
California Forever hired former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg earlier this year to lobby the Legislature to fast-track a deal that would allow the group to bypass environmental reviews after lawmakers overhauled parts of the California Environmental Quality Act last year to kickstart development.
Newsom reportedly supported the push, which was also supported by the California Alliance for Jobs and a coterie of labor unions and pro-development groups including the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the California State Council of Laborers, and the California Conference of Carpenters. California Forever’s chief lobbyist firm, Axiom Advisors, has deep ties to his administration dating back to Newsom’s time as a San Francisco city supervisor and later mayor.
California Forever first began in 2017 as the brainchild of San Francisco venture capitalist Michael Moritz and former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek, with backing from Silicon Valley moguls Marc Andreessen, Reed Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs, the Apple founder’s widow.
The group’s plans of building a walkable community in farmland country initially faltered after running into local opposition until it turned to the state in June. It said Saronic's relocation would bring thousands of jobs and build badly needed housing as demand for lawmakers to address affordability has reached a fever pitch in recent years.
In a joint statement Thursday, California Forever and its supporters said it was “extremely frustrated” at losing the “historic opportunity,” and blamed “inaction and political gridlock” for the Legislature’s failure to pass a bill greenlighting construction.
Spokespeople for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, and Senate President pro Tem Monique Limon, D-Santa Barbara, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Shipbuilding is in California’s heritage, and California was the natural home for Port Alpha,” the coalition statement read.
“Our coalition’s warning about losing the opportunity to Texas has now become reality. We hope this missed opportunity serves as a wake-up call that inaction and political gridlock have real costs for all Californians, but especially the working families represented by this coalition, who struggle daily with long commutes and rising housing costs.”
