The Silicon Valley tycoons behind a secretive, $1 billion land grab near a California Air Force base are being accused of using “strong-arm mobster techniques” to bully residents — and local officials say their plans to build a utopian city won’t go through without a fight.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen are among the tech tycoons behind Flannery Associates, a group that has targeted holdout landowners with a federal price-fixing lawsuit while securing some 55,000 acres near the military base in Solano County, Calif.
Flannery’s deep-pocketed backers, however, may now face a costly, complicated political battle to secure necessary approvals for their project east of Napa Valley, including rezoning the land for residential use.
Local officials including US Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), whose district includes the base, told The Post they were baffled by the mysterious entity’s plans to build a futuristic city on the dry, inhospitable farmland, which is riddled with wind turbines and abandoned gas wells and lacks basic infrastructure including highway access.
“The strong-arm mobster techniques that they have used to acquire the land raise very, very serious questions about their integrity,” said Garamendi, a senior member on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
“They have clearly poisoned the well in Solano County,” Garamendi added. “Do they intend to develop in such a way as to protect Travis or not?”
Since 2018, Flannery Associates has become the largest landowner in Solano County — territory sandwiched between Napa, San Francisco and Sacramento.
The group bought so much real estate near Travis Air Force Base, with such secrecy, that the feds initially feared China had acquired the land for nefarious purposes.
Catherine Moy, the mayor of the city of Fairfield, said her office is “looking at every angle to try to stop” Flannery from proceeding with its plans. She estimated that “95% of the hundreds of people who have contacted me oppose this.”
Garamendi and Moy both said they first learned the names of the group’s backers after reading news reports last week.
In response, Moy said her office and other officials are already mounting a campaign to oppose the project if it were to come up for a vote — including the formation of a committee to coordinate the local response.
“I don’t think they can get it done. I think it’s a bad investment, unless they’re doing it for something else,” Moy said.
“Let’s be real — you can have these names of these billionaires who say they’re behind this or others are saying that, but they can also have connections to China and others. I’m just not buying it. We’re treating it like a full-on threat.”
In May, Flannery filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a group of landowners had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by colluding to drive up the price of their property.
In July, three of the owners announced a potential settlement with Flannery, the New York Times reported. Other families recently filed a motion to dismiss the suit.
Flannery will need the local board of supervisors to sign off on zoning changes that were put in place in part to protect Travis — a critical hub known as the “Gateway to the Pacific,” which handles a huge volume of military air traffic, including supplies sent to Ukraine for the war with Russia.
Other hurdles include securing approvals from the regional branch of the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, which regulates land annexations and changes to cities and districts.
The land owned by Flannery is also subject to federal regulations, including environmental laws related to endangered species that thrive in the area.
Even if it were to gain all necessary land and approvals, Flannery would likely need to spend billions on new infrastructure.
For example, Moy said the land is presently serviced by a single two-lane highway that’s so dangerous, it’s known as “Blood Alley” by locals “because there are so many crashes and deaths out there.”
Garamendi questioned whether the project’s developers had fully informed investors about the challenges the project would need to overcome to move forward.
“It’s incredibly stupid…no developer would ever spend $800 million without talking to local officials, but that’s what they’ve done here,” Garamendi said.
“Knowing what I do know about these extremely wealthy people that obviously have a lot of money to throw around, I’m going, you guys have no idea what you’re investing in,” he added.
Flannery also will seek to get support by bringing their plan for a referendum — an effort that began last week, when Fairfield residents received an anonymous “push poll” asking how they would vote if the city project was put on the ballot next year, according to a copy viewed by The Post.
“All of that protection for Travis depends upon the county and the zoning requirements that the county puts forth,” Garamendi said. “The push poll that was conducted by Flannery Associates, which is a total BS poll, but designed to set the stage, indicated right at the outset that they intended to do an initiative.”
The poll said the project would be 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” that is “estimated to generate thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue for Solano County.”
Flannery is led by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader.
Another key figure in the group is former Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz.
“We’re pleased to be engaged in productive discussions with local leaders about our vision to deliver good-paying jobs, affordable housing, walkable communities, and open space to Solano County,” Flannery spokesperson Brian Brokaw said in a statement.
“Our team is working closely with the community and local leaders to craft a shared vision for Solano County’s future, and our CEO Jan Sramek looks forward to speaking with Rep. Garamendi, Mayor Moy, and other local elected officials very soon.”
In July, Garamendi and fellow Democratic US Rep. Mike Thompson, whose district is also impacted, asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) to investigate the group’s origins.
Flannery had earlier downplayed concerns about the project’s origins, asserting that 97% of the money had come from American investors, with the rest coming from British or Irish backers.
Nevertheless, Flannery is “in for a fight,” according to Moy.
“You don’t start shoving things at us five years after you start making plans,” Moy said. “That’s not how we roll out here. They have not made friends out here.”
“We will politically fight them. We will knock on everybody’s doors,” Moy added. “That’s how we get elected here – we are good at talking to our neighbors.”
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