Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk plans to build his own city | CNN Business

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What do you get for the billionaire who has it all? Maybe his own city.

Entities linked to Elon Musk and his companies have been acquiring thousands of acres of land in Texas in hopes of creating a city where his employees could live and work, according to a Wall Street Journal report Thursday.

These entities they have bought at least 3,500 acres near Austin and are in the process of working to incorporate a town called Snailbrook, an apparent reference to the mascot of Musk’s tunneling company, the Boring Company, according to the Journal.

The report cites county deeds and other land records, as well as city and county emails, internal company communications, state licensing records and interviews with landowners and city and county officials. (CNN has not reviewed all the land and other records cited in the Journal report.)

Over the years, tech companies have offered numerous amenities on campus to hire workers and sometimes incentivize them to put in more hours. By building a city of his own, Musk could take this approach even further.

According to the report, Musk wants employees at his companies Boring Co., Tesla and SpaceX, all of which have major production facilities near Austin, “to be able to live in new homes at below-market rents.” The Snailbrook effort also includes plans to build more than 100 homes, as well as neighborhood features such as a swimming pool and outdoor sports area.

Adding a city could also give Musk, who has been known to clash with state and federal regulators, more say in how things are run.

Musk in 2020 announced that he would move Tesla’s headquarters and personal residence from California to Texas, blaming frustrations with California’s coronavirus restrictions. Last year, Tesla opened a new Gigafactory manufacturing facility in Austin. Musk’s SpaceX and Boring Co. They also have facilities in Texas, and Boring Co. reports. has been in talks with Austin about building tunnels in the city, according to a February report from the Austin American Statesman.

Property records in Bastrop County, which is adjacent to Austin, show that Boring Co. owns 11 parcels of land at an address near the Colorado River where mobile homes were built over the past three years, according to records reviewed by CNN. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will hold a meeting on plans for a wastewater treatment plant at the same site, which were submitted by a registered LLC to a Boring Co. executive, according to a public announcement of the meeting .

That same entity also owns a number of nearby property parcels that include commercial and residential building lots and pasture and cropland, according to public records. The paper reported that Musk’s team has discussed incorporating the city into Bastrop County. The county told the Journal that it had not received an application for incorporation, which requires a certain number of residents, from Musk or any of his entities.

Tesla, SpaceX and Boring Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.