Dive Brief:
- A tech investor-backed real estate development group is proposing to build a massive industrial park in Solano County, California, focused on robotics, semiconductors and other types of advanced manufacturing.
- The 2,100-acre project, called the Solano Foundry, looks to be the nation’s largest hub for high-tech production facilities, located about an hour’s drive north of Silicon Valley, according to a news release.
- It is part of California Forever’s plans to build a new city in between Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as bring manufacturing jobs back to the state.
Dive Insight:
The Solano Foundry proposal comes weeks after California passed a spending bill that allows advanced materials manufacturers to build in industrial zones without environmental review.
State lawmakers have said the reform will accelerate the approval process and lower costs, drawing more business development to the Golden State.
“Silicon Valley earned its name because chips were once made here alongside code,” Jan Sramek, founder and CEO of California Forever, said in a statement. “The Solano Foundry restores that formula. By bringing R&D and manufacturing back together, we’ll outpace global competitors, streamline supply chains, and ignite a new era where products are both designed and made in California.”
For decades, Silicon Valley’s companies leveraged nearby factories and research facilities for innovation and collaboration. But as production migrated offshore to other countries, this slowed iteration and stretched supply chains to the point at which overseas competitors began growing at faster rates, according to California Forever.
The real estate development group hopes to address this issue by creating a new city in Solano County within reach of economic drivers such as Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. In addition to high-tech production facilities, it has plans to build a shipyard and walkable neighborhoods with more than 150,000 homes. The proposed city would also be close to Travis Air Force Base.
With its proximity near the shipyard, the Solano Foundry has the potential to make domestic components for maritime vessels just miles away. It also can leverage the U.S. Air Force base for military collaboration and workforce opportunities.
JLL, a real estate firm and partner of California Forever, compared the project against 13 other U.S. industrial parks and found that it was the strongest opportunity to revitalize the state’s manufacturing sector.
According to a recent whitepaper from JLL, the advanced manufacturing project has the potential to create 40,000 jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity for Solano County. It is also centrally located to leverage local and nearby labor pools as larger cities push workers out due to high living costs or a shortage of jobs.
“The team’s visionary plan for this site has the potential to attract the nation’s top engineers and innovators capable of designing the future,” John Gates, JLL’s CEO of Americas Markets, said in a statement.
California Forever is spearheaded by Flannery Associates, a group of ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley investors that have spent about $1 billion on farmland over the course of five years, according to a 2023 report from Rural Migration News, distributed by the University of California, Davis.
The effort has been met with mixed reactions, with several state residents optimistic about the new city. However, farmers have pushed back against selling their land, resulting in lawsuits from Flannery Associates. California Forever said it has settled with nearly all of the defendants.
