Tech mogul Marc Andreessen’s family owns tracts of land near the city’s controversial California Forever project he’s backing — and plans to build more than 1,000 homes as part of a “visionary” real estate plan, according to a report.
Andreessen, co-founder of the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, is one of several Silicon Valley bigwigs trying to build a new city on rural farmland in Solano County. The California Forever project was delayed at least two years in July after facing stiff resistance from local residents.
Meanwhile, an LLC operated by Andreessen’s wife, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, and brother-in-law, John Arrillaga Jr., owns three tracts of land totaling about 730 acres within a few miles of the California Forever properties, according to records obtained by TechCrunch .
The project was already under development in 2015 — two years before California Forever began buying large tracts of land in the area — and does not appear to be connected.
The land was reportedly first purchased in 1985 by the siblings’ real estate mogul father, the late John Arrillaga Sr., and his partner Richard Peery. The LLC, called A&P Children Investments, is planning a mixed-use development that will include more than 1,000 homes on a parcel of land in the nearby city of Vacaville, California.
During a local city council meeting in April, a representative of A&P Children reportedly said the development was a “visionary” housing project.
“What we’re looking to do here is something that’s unique to Solano County and actually to most of California,” the representative, Greg Brun, said, according to TechCrunch.
Brun added that the project would not “have the problems you’ve had in the past.”
Andreessen and Arrillaga Jr. could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.
A spokesperson for California Forever told the newspaper that its leaders “never made an offer” to buy the land — and had already been buying land in the area for years before learning Andreessen’s family owned the parcels.
“We were not aware that the Arrillaga and Peery families owned any land in Solano County until about two years ago, when we were already five years into the project,” the spokesman said.
California Forever’s billionaire backers, including Andreessen, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Steve Jobs’ widow, businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs, have been tight-lipped about their involvement since it was revealed they had bankrolled nearly $1 billion in secret land purchases in Solano County.
Project executive director Jan Sramek has pitched California Forever to locals as a walkable city that would solve problems plaguing the state, such as high housing costs, punishing commutes and environmental crises.
Sramek and his associates had planned to seek approval for the city through a ballot measure in November, but put it on hold pending the outcome of environmental impact studies.
Lawmakers and local residents have been critical of the tactics used by California Forever in its bid to build the city, with one resident once comparing Sramek to a “snake oil salesman” during a heated town hall meeting.
“The delay in the vote gives everyone a chance to stop and work together, which is needed — not a fight between friends across the county on both sides of the issue,” according to a joint statement from the county. and California Forever.
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