SpaceX Ends Lease at Port of Los Angeles
SpaceX’s plan to build components for its Starship and Super Heavy boosters at the Port of Los Angeles is dead — again.
Elon Musk’s company gave notice to the port on March 27 that it was backing out of a lease to locate a research, development, manufacturing and recovery facility at a dilapidated structure on Terminal Island.
SpaceX gave notice just over a month after harbor commissioners approved a 10-year lease with two 10-year extensions on Feb. 21. The agreement was later approved by the Los Angeles City Council.
The lease would have allowed SpaceX to off set lease payments by making improvements to the 12.4-acre property. The site is not far from SpaceX’s headquarters and main manufacturing facility in Hawthorne.
It’s the second time SpaceX has left the Port Los Angeles at the altar. The company had a permit in 2018, but terminated the agreement. SpaceX approached officials about a new lease early this year.
SpaceX is testing Starship prototypes at its Boca Chica facility, which is located in south Texas near the Mexican border. It is possible the production facility slated for Los Angeles will be built somewhere in Texas.
The letter, signed by SpaceX CFO Bret Johnson, gave no reason for ending the lease. However, the letter’s date — March 27 — indicates the decision might be related to Musk’s anger at California officials over the state’s response to the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Johnson sent the letter four days after Musk’s Tesla Motors shut down most operations at its facility in Fremont, Calif., in response to an Alameda County Health Department order to limit the spread of the virus.
The shutdown came a week after the county had ordered Tesla and other non-essential businesses to shut down. Musk disputed that Tesla was a non-essential business.
SpaceX operations in Hawthorne were not impacted because the company was deemed essential.
Musk lashed out at Alameda County and California state officials, calling their shutdown and stay at home orders “fascist” and accusing them of forcibly imprisoning people in their residences in violation of their Constitutional rights.
In May, Musk reopened the Tesla plant in defiance of a Alameda County order to stay closed until health officials reviewed and approved Tesla’s plan for preventing the spread of COVID-19 among its workforce.
County officials said an approved plan was part of the guidance included in a state order allowing manufacturing facilities to reopen. Musk ignored them, reopened the facility and filed a lawsuit against the county that was later dropped.
Musk vowed to move Tesla headquarters out of California and to not expand the company’s activities in the Golden State. He subsequently had talks with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner about relocation options.
11 responses to “SpaceX Ends Lease at Port of Los Angeles”
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*facepalm* oy vey. This chews up a lot of good will at LA city hall. The next time SpaceX brings up a project requiring city government approval I have a feeling SpaceX won’t be treated very well.
Probably depends on what was going on under the radar. It is not a given that there was any good will involved in either direction.
Yeah. Boring Co plans to dig anywhere in LA County could be in jeopardy, though LA might still give love back to Elon if Hawthorne plant maintains current workload.
it was actually the cheapest choice in terms of time and $.
However, I would not be surprised if CA is perhaps learning to support their state/nation.
I was disgusted when they went to China for re-doing the golden gate, which is now in almost as bad as it was before, and costs a great deal more than if they had gone with the American bid.
You forget that CA, backed by this very group, denied SpaceX access to money for training.
This is basically payback for CA’s war on Tesla/SX.
This decision was made back in late March, well before the flap over re-opening Tesla Fremont and the retaliatory turn-down on the training funds. This decision was about not starting to build another factory in CA when Musk’s biggest one had already been shut down and his second was still open only because it had a national security exemption. At the time, and under the circumstances, the decision was entirely reasonable.
All the more reason to move the rest of SpaceX out of California to Texas where the state supports entrepreneurs and is business friendly.
SpaceX – and Tesla – already haven’t been treated very well. The interval between Tesla being shut down by Sacto and the cancellation of the barely-completed Terminal Island site lease was four days. At the time, Musk had no idea how long Tesla would be shuttered. I think four days was about enough time to make inquiries at L.A. County HQ as to what the treatment of a Port of L.A. Starship factory would be anent Covid-19. I don’t think Elon liked the answer he got and decided to cut his potential losses early.
“It’s the second time SpaceX has left the Port Los Angeles at the altar”
Oh man, gotta feel for those Port of LA guys, lol. I had been wondering about that, especially the other day when Musk urged employees to go to Boca Chica to work on Starship, the company’s new highest priority. Seemed like the “work on” equaled a move, full on relocation for those who would sign up, not just stopping by for a few weeks or months
I really do not think that ‘work on’ => move. SX has always done a good job with having ppl work on several projects and simply shifting priorities.
Contrast that with how Boeing, L-Mart, etc do things.
Looks like Boca Chica is going to be Elon Musk’s base for his push to Mars so its not surprising he isn’t expanding in California. Imagine all the paperwork he would need to build this quickly there…
https://twitter.com/elonmus…