Electric car manufacturer Faraday Future has received a huge boost in its plan to establish a manufacturing site in California after receiving approval to enter into negotiations to build a manufacturing plant in Vallejo City.
The Vallejo City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to enter into a six-month exclusive negotiating agreement with Faraday Future and its special purpose entity FF LLC, to discuss the purchase of a 157 acre site at Mare Island.
The agreement could mean the establishment of the Silicon Valley start up’s second US factory, which would house a production facility with a customer and delivery center where buyers could pick up their cars.
Vallejo economic management manager Kathleen Diop praised the council’s decision to enter into negotiations with Faraday Future to build a manufacturing plant at Mare Island.
“It’s going to be a destination and a factory, and it’s going to bring people to Vallejo,” she said.
The Vallejo City Council’s unanimous decision to approve negotiations for a potential site for Faraday Future could give the Californian city the economic boost it sorely needs.
The facility is expected to create hundreds of jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into a city which filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in 2008 after having reached tens of millions of dollars in debt.
Faraday Future to develop plan
Faraday Future will solidify its proposal for the 157-acre site on Mare Island over the next six months, and will present it to third-party lawyers and consultants representing Vallejo City.
The electric vehicle startup has agreed that it will pay Vallejo City’s legal and consulting fees as well as a $200,000 non-refundable negotiation fee.
Vallejo and Faraday Future intend to work out details of the plan for the Mare Island manufacturing plant during the negotiations which were approved by the city’s council.
If an agreement is reached, those details of the site plan and the disposition of the property will be brought back to the Vallejo City Council.
“When we first started marketing this property, our first objective was good-paying jobs with green technology and an employer willing and able to make the necessary investment,” said Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis. “Faraday Future and its plans to make Vallejo its second manufacturing site and bring green technology to Mare Island checks all the boxes.”
The Vallejo City Council’s approval to negotiate for a potential site could allow Faraday Future to establish its second site, with the company’s North Las Vegas manufacturing facility – a 3-million square foot plant estimated to cost $1bn, projected to start producing vehicles in a couple of years.
In its presentation to Vallejo City Council, Faraday Future stated that the company liked the Bay Area based site of Vallejo City due to its close proximity to Silicon Valley, as well as its maritime flair and history.
It also said that the proximity to a ‘capable workforce’ made up of the large pool of engineering talent in the San Francisco Bay Area made Mare Island an attractive proposition.
