The mystery company that bought up nearly $1 billion worth of land near an Air Force base in California is being backed by several Silicon Valley titans.
Some of the Valley’s most notable names include Marc Andreessen, Laurene Powell Jobs and Michael Moritz, who are hoping to transform tens of thousands of acres, located in a corner of the San Francisco Bay, into a bustling city, according to the New York Times.
The pitch notes that it “could generate thousands of jobs and be as walkable as Paris or the West Village in New York City.”
Moritz noted in the 2017 thesis obtained by the outlet the exact layout, including the design-to-construction planning to new forms of governance.
“Let me know if this tickles your fancy,” Moritz wrote, adding that their decision to build this new city hinges on “bad California policies.”
“This effort should relieve some of the Silicon Valley pressures we all feel — rising home prices, homelessness, congestion etc,” Moritz told one investor.
Since then, a company called Flannery Associates has bought up plots of land in a largely agricultural region in Solano County.
Flannery Associates appears to be led by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader.
The company has acquired around 52,000 acres to build on.
Flannery bought out several landowners to accomplish this, whether the land had been listed for sale or not.
Backers include Moritz; Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, venture capitalist and Democratic donor; Andreessen and Chris Dixon, investors at the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payments company Stripe; Powell Jobs, founder of the Emerson Collective; and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, entrepreneurs turned investors. Andreessen Horowitz is also a backer.
“If the plans materialize anywhere close to what is being contemplated, this should be a spectacular investment,” Moritz wrote.
They still have to overcome zoning regulations as the land purchased has only been zoned for agriculture purposes, not residential.
The Post has reached out for comment.
This is not the first time investors and tech moguls have toyed with the idea of building their own private city.
Similarly, another group of American investors are hoping to build an entirely new city, known as Praxis, only away from the United States and somewhere near the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk recently purchased 3,500 acres of land outside of Austin, Texas, to build a town he intends to call “Snailbrook.”
