By Katabella Roberts
The mysterious company that has been buying up large swathes of land near Travis Air Force Base in Solano County in Northern California has unveiled a new website detailing plans to build a new metropolitan city.
The Delaware-registered firm, Flannery Associates LLC, has spent nearly $1 billion purchasing more than 50,000 acres of land surrounding Travis Air Force Base since 2018, public records show.
California Forever is the parent company of Flannery Associates, according to its new website.
It was founded in 2017 by CEO Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, and is backed by billionaires including Marc Andreessen and Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
“Over the last few years, Flannery has purchased over 50,000 acres in Solano County. To date, our company has been quiet about our activities. This has, understandably, created interest, concern, and speculation,” the website states. “Now that we’re no longer limited by confidentiality, we are eager to begin a conversation about the future of Solano County a conversation with all of you.”
The website goes on to state that Solano County, like much of California, “faces many challenges, but also possesses countless opportunities.”
Over the past few years, California Forever has completed surveys and interviews with about 2,000 residents of Solano County—located between Sacramento, San Francisco, and Napa Valley, with a population of about 450,000—and their voices, according to the company, “were clear.”
“Residents want more opportunities to buy homes in safe, walkable communities. Good paying local jobs, so they can both live and work in the county,” the website states. “Better funding to improve schools, promote public safety, and reduce homelessness, as well as resources to invest in infrastructure for transportation, water, and wildfire protection.”
That is why, according to California Forever, it has raised capital from a string of investors including Mr. Andreessen and California investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, and Ms. Jobs, as well as Patrick and John Collison, Chris Dixon, John Doerr, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, Reid Hoffman, and Michael Moritz, to build the new community.
‘Walkable Neighborhoods,’ Solar Farms
Those investors share the firm’s “long-term vision and belief that California’s best days are still ahead,” and are “committed to Solano and this project for the long term.”
The community will include homes, shopping, dining and schools, all within “walkable neighborhoods,” as well as solar farms and “open space,” including both “agriculture and habitat conservation,” according to the website.
It will also attract new employers, create well-paying local jobs, lead in “environment stewardship,” and fuel a “growing tax base to serve the county at large.”
Finally, the project would “protect and support” Travis Air Force Base, including by respecting Solano County’s official Travis Reserve Area, according to the company.
The website comes as lawmakers have raised concerns over Flannery Associates LLC.
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), whose district includes Solano County, said he met with two representatives from the company in late August to ask questions about their plans but that it was clear following the meeting that they “don’t have a plan; they have a vision.”
“The secrecy under which they operated caused consternation and concern from residents, local elected officials, and federal agencies, and while they explained their rationale, I do not believe the secrecy was necessary,” the lawmaker said in a statement.
“Solano County is a tight-knit community, and it is going to be a long road for Flannery to restore trust and move forward with their proposed vision. As one of the representatives of Solano County, I want to make sure that a group of Silicon Valley billionaires do not steal family farmers’ ability to farm their land.”
The lawsuit accuses the farmers, including Barnes Family Ranch Associates LLC and Kirby Hill Associates LLC, of conspiring to inflate the price of real estate by hundreds of millions of dollars and overcharging the company, allegedly in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
Litigation in the case remains ongoing.
Mr. Thompson, following his Aug. 29 meeting, cited additional concerns such as national security and food security, noting that a “development of the magnitude they are proposed could harm Travis Air Force Base in the long term.”
“They need to make sure that nothing they do harms Travis, puts our national security at risk, or disadvantages family farmers,” he said.
Other lawmakers including Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) have raised concerns over the plans, claiming some of the families who sold the land to the company did not want to sell to Flannery, but were persuaded with large sums of money.
Many of the families, according to Mr. Garamendi, cannot afford legal representation in the ongoing lawsuit.
Despite those concerns, California Forever insists the new project is the start of a “decades-long collaboration with Solano’s residents, elected officials and agencies, as well as the many Solano stakeholders, including Travis Air Force Base, labor, business, agriculture, educators, police, fire, conservation, and many others.”
“This is a project that must be not just designed with, but also approved by, all Solano residents,” the website states.
Masooma Haq contributed to this report.
