A consortium of Silicon Valley elites, led by the group Flannery Associates, has acquired 55,000 acres of land in northern California for $800 million with the ambitious goal of constructing a sustainable, utopian city. Investors include leftist luminaries like Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs.
The Guardian reports that Flannery Associates, with the support of Silicon Valley investors, has made a significant acquisition of agricultural and vacant land worth a whopping $800 million, causing widespread attention locally and nationally. The group’s objective is to build a utopian new town on 55,000 acres that promises its future residents reliable public transportation, urban living amenities, and a commitment to clean energy.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn Corp., walks to the morning session during the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, US, on Friday, July 14, 2023. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
The project is spearheaded by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former trader for Goldman Sachs. Among the high-profile backers are Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist; Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of Linkedin and a leftist misinformation spreader; Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs called the “new Soros” by Breitbart News editor in chief Alex Marlow; Marc Andreessen, an investor and software developer; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payment processor Stripe; and entrepreneurs Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman.
Flannery Associates has been acquiring farmland and vacant plots for the past five years but has only recently begun interacting with local officials and residents. It has been reported that Flannery has acquired land from local farmers, paying them prices significantly higher than the market value. As a result, Flannery has become the largest landowner in Solano county. The land acquired by the group surrounds Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, a city of about 120,000 residents.
The group has also been sending out opinion polls to local residents to determine their feelings on an initiative that could appear on Solano county voter’s ballots. “This project would include a new city with tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees, and over ten thousand acres of new parks and open space,” reads a screenshot of the survey obtained by SF Gate.
Despite the grand vision, Flannery Associates faces a multitude of challenges. The group has already initiated lawsuits against landowners over what it describes as an “illegal price-fixing conspiracy.” Moreover, the firm will need to secure approvals from officials at both local and state levels and navigate a labyrinth of environmental and zoning roadblocks.
Read more at the Guardian here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan