Texas, meet Elon Musk.
You’re both quite alike – big thinkers, quick to get things done, each brash in your own way. And noting how you Texans judge people, it’s unlikely Elon Musk is all hat and no cattle.
That’s because Musk has quite the project for the Lone Star State, planning a town – eventually maybe a city – for his nearby Austin-area employees, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Fed up with the California government in recent years, Musk moved major portions of his Tesla, SpaceX, and Boring Company operations to Texas.
Current Musk Texas landholding details obtained by The Journal are sketchy but it appears he’s controlling perhaps as many as 6,000 acres through limited liability corporations linked to him or his associates.
At least 3,500 acres were reportedly purchased by Musk-linked entities, and that, at least, seems to be a firm number. Of those, over 200 acres in Bastrop County, which is southeast of Austin, are slated for a Musk housing development, currently named Snailbrook.
That name ties into the mascot of one of Musk’s businesses, the Boring Company, so-named because Musk wanted his people to develop a tunnel drilling machine that could move faster than a snail, The Journal explained.
Names for the 110-home planned community include calling the development “Project Amazing” in a county application and dubbing streets with alliterative names such as “Boring Boulevard,” “Cutterhead Crossing,” “Waterjet Way,” and “Porpoise Place.”
Then there’s the Tesla car plant called the “Giga” factory – 10 million square feet being built near Austin in Travis County. SpaceX and Boring are building warehousing facilities near the planned housing development.
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A year ago, an internal company advertisement said Boring employees would be able to rent two- or three-bedroom homes for as little as $800 a month, a substantial savings from median local rates of $2,200.
Modular homes, a gym and facilities for outdoor sports are already on-site, along with signs reading: “welcome, snailbrook, tx, est. 2021.”
Musk is one of the more prominent individuals of the many who have fled California in recent years. Boring and Tesla were headquartered in California, but “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation,” drove them to Texas, Musk said in late 2021, per The Journal.
Musk is reportedly living with a friend in Austin until his planned Texas residential compound is built.
Testing the waters in 2020 regarding a Texas move, Musk sought assurances from Steve Adler, the former Austin mayor, that Musk could do business with minimal government interference.
“What he wanted from the city was speed,” Adler said.
But after Musk began to transfer his operations, local government staffers began to complain of being pressured by Musk companies and contractors to rush things.
But the Bastrop county director of tourism and economic development, Adena Lewis, dismissed that critique, noting that, “They’re very respectful of us. But they’re in a hurry.”
To say that Musk and his team want to grow quickly appears to be an understatement.
And there may be lots more growth. Viewed emails and conversations with The Wall Street Journal indicate Boring President Steve Davis and other employees of the company have been discussing the possible development of a city.
And, after everything Musk has already accomplished, why not? Elon Musk has proven he tends make things happen in a big way.
Sort of like how they do things in Texas.
