Futurisitic California city rocked as key tenant bails for Texas
Plodding California legislators are facing blowback after a futuristic, billionaire-backed new city being built in the Bay Area lost out on a massive $3.2 billion shipyard project that would have created 10,000 jobs.Saronic Technologies, an Austin-based defense contractor, has chosen to build its next-generation “Port Alpha” autonomous shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, instead of Solano County.The decision has sparked criticism from labor leaders, veterans and housing advocates, who blamed Sacramento Democrats for failing to move quickly on special legislation to land one of the largest manufacturing projects in recent state history.A source familiar with the negotiations told The Post that Saronic executives visited Solano County in September 2025 and April 2026, but state Sen.
Christopher Cabaldon, Assemblymember Lori Wilson and members of the Solano County Board of Supervisors declined to meet with the company.The April meeting was held inside the Solano County Administration Building.Saronic nearly abandoned California after those visits but remained in the running only because of what one described as a “Herculean effort” by Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s administration to convene regulators and keep negotiations alive.Cabaldon and the govenror’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.“California had a real opportunity to bring home a $3.2 billion shipyard, 10,000 permanent jobs and thousands of union construction jobs — but state leaders failed to act with the urgency this project demanded,” Joshua Arce, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs, said in a statement.California Forever — the billionaire-backed city project founded by former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek and financed by Silicon Valley heavyweights including Laurene Powell Jobs, Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen and the billionaire Collison brothers — had hoped the shipyard would become the anchor industrial tenant for the development.“W...