Tech mogul Marc Andreessen’s family reportedly owns land near the controversial “California Forever” urban project he backs, which is set to build more than 1,000 homes as part of a “visionary” real estate plan.
Andreessen, co-founder of the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, is one of several Silicon Valley bigwigs seeking to build a new city on rural farmland in Solano County. The California Forever plan faced stiff resistance from local residents and was postponed in July for at least two years.
Meanwhile, records show that a limited liability company run by Andreessen’s wife, Laura Arrillaga Andreessen, and his brother-in-law, John Arrillaga Jr., owns three parcels of land totaling about 730 acres within a few miles of the California Forever holdings. Acquired by TechCrunch.
The project was already in development in 2015, two years before California Forever began buying up large swaths of land in the area, and there appears to be no partnership between the two.
The land was reportedly first acquired by the siblings’ father, the late real estate mogul John Arrillaga Sr., and his partner Richard Peary in 1985. The limited liability company, called A&P Children Investments, plans to build a mixed-use development that will include more than 1,000 homes on the land near Vacaville, California.
At a local city council meeting in April, a representative for A&P Children was quoted as saying the development was a “visionary” housing project.
“What we’re doing here is unique to Solano County, and really most of California,” Representative Greg Brann told TechCrunch.
Brun added that the project “will not have the problems we have had in the past.”
Andreessen and Arrillaga Jr. could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.
A California Forever spokesman told the outlet that company executives “never made any offer” to buy the land, and that the company had already begun buying land in the area years before it learned that Andreessen’s family owned it.
“We were not aware that the Arrillaga and Peary families owned land in Solano County until two years ago, when the project was already five years in the making,” the spokesperson said.
California Forever’s billionaire backers, including Andreessen, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Steve Jobs’ widow, businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs, have remained quiet about their involvement since it was revealed they had secretly spent nearly $1 billion on land purchases in Solano County.
Jan Sramek, the project’s CEO, is pitching California Forever to locals as a walkable city that will solve problems plaguing the state, including housing costs, brutal commutes and the environmental crisis.
Sramek and his allies had planned to seek city approval through the ballot in November, but put that on hold pending the results of an environmental impact study.
Local lawmakers and residents have criticized the tactics California Forever has used to push for the city, with one resident likening Sramek to a “quack drug salesman” during a heated town hall meeting.
“Delaying the vote gives everyone a chance to pause and work together, which is what we need, not friends in the county fighting each other, but both sides fighting each other.” According to a joint statement from the county and California Forever.
