California Forever Adds Another Project to Wishlist

The controversial California Forever project has added another component to its wide-reaching plans.

Jan Sramek, CEO of California Forever, announced a proposal for a 2,100-acre manufacturing plant called “Solano Foundry,” the San Francisco Standard and San Francisco Business Times reported. The planned 40-million-square-foot facilities would house “the most innovative industries, including advanced transportation, robotics, energy and defense” and bring 40,000 jobs to the region according to the project website.

“Silicon Valley earned its name because chips were once made here alongside code,” Sramek said in a statement, per the Standard. “By bringing [research and development] and manufacturing back together, Solano Foundry restores that magic in a new home for frontier tech.”

If completed, it would be the largest such industrial facility in the country.

Solano Foundry would be located on the western edge of the 17,500-acre unnamed planned city in Solano County. The Solano Foundry proposal includes affordable homes for middle-class workers as well as luxury-style amenities like lounges, community areas, restaurants and cafes — perks often reserved for tech workers rather than industrial employees. Some colleges and universities are also reportedly interested in setting up a satellite campus there, though details remain light.

“This is not a large residential-only development. We want to create related jobs here, and want to do it for the California middle class, which is partially leaving the state for lack of affordable housing and lack of suitable jobs,” Andreas Lieber, general manager of industry and technology at California Forever, told the Business Times.

The Solano Foundry plan is the latest addition to the growing billionaire-backed development that has yet to break ground. In the spring, California Forever announced it wants to build a 1,400-acre shipbuilding facility in Collinsville about 20 miles south in northern Solano County. The Foundry would be located 7 miles from the proposed shipyard.

Suisun City, located west of the proposed California Forever site near Travis Air Force Base, is looking to incorporate nearly 23,000 of the 60,000 acres purchased for the development into its own city limits. — Chris Malone Méndez