Port of Los Angeles announces deal to lease shipyard to Space X for rocket construction.
SpaceX plans to build the Big Falcon Rocket that it eventually wants to use to send spacecraft to Mars at a former shipyard in the Port of Los Angeles.
On Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said during his annual state of the city speech, “SpaceX will start production development of the Big Falcon Rocket in the Port of Los Angeles.”
The port’s Board of Harbor Commissioners will consider Thursday a request from the port’s staff to approve a permit that would allow Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to construct and operate a “research, design and manufacturing facility for rockets and spacecraft” at Berth 240 in the port.
“We’re thrilled that Mayor Garcetti helped us create this new opportunity with one of the most innovative companies in the world,” said Port Executive Director Gene Seroka. “This agreement, which goes before the Los Angeles Harbor Commission for approval on Thursday, would allow the Port of Los Angeles to build on the science and technology job clusters that have been envisioned at our port and public waterfront.”
The 19-acre site formerly was used by Southwest Marine as a shipyard. A spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles said plans call for a building at the site that is 106 feet in height.
According to the agenda for the meeting, the rockets to be built at the facility “once complete, would be too large for reasonable transport by road and thus must be transported by barge or ship, necessitating that the facility be water adjacent.”
SpaceX has been discussing the project with the port since 2015 and also had considered other sites throughout the country.
The port said the proposed lease is for “an initial 10-year term with two 10-year options to extend, with an initial annual rent of approximately $1.38 million and annual adjustments based on the consumer price index (CPI). SpaceX will receive credits that offset rent in exchange for tenant improvements constructed on the property for the initial 10-year term and the first 10-year option period. The improvements will transfer to the Harbor Department at the end of the term.”
The board is being asked Thursday to approve the deal with Space X as in the best interest of the city and Harbor Department “despite the fact that the proposed permit was not a result of a public solicitation or request as this action has the potential to result in 700 jobs and the site has not been occupied by a tenant since October 2005.”
The commissioners also are asked “to find that the proposed action is in the best interest of the city and Harbor Department despite the fact that the estimated rate of return on investment does not meet stated policy targets as enacted by the board.”
In addition, the board is asked to find the deal exempt from the California Environment Quality Act because it was assessed in a study approved by the Board of Harbor Commissioners last month. During the public portion of that meeting, the new facility was identified opaquely as a “transportation vessels manufacturing facility.”
According to the discussion that night, in the first phase of construction a 60,050-square-foot building and up to four 12,000-gallon storage tanks will be erected. In a second phase, a compressor house will be demolished and a very large 203,450-square-foot building will be constructed.
Harbor Commissioner David Arian noted the shipyard was used to build Liberty Ships during World War II, but said it “has been sitting idle for too long.”
Chris Cannon, the port’s director of environmental management, says it is used for movie shoots today.
More information about the Big Falcon Rocket may be found at http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/making_life_multiplanetary_transcript_2017.pdf.
Spaceport of Los Angeles?
