BASTROP – It’s almost impossible to escape recent news about Elon Musk.
As his Office of Government Efficiency significantly cuts federal spending, the world’s wealthiest people claim national and international impact on an unprecedented scale. When he didn’t post on X about European politics or California wildfires, he targeted Day and foreign aid and reportedly caught some shuteye in the office next to the White House It is reportedly done.
The impact of the mask, which is more than 1,500 miles at the heart of his business empire in Lone Star State, is even more subtle for now.
For many years, Musk has accumulated his economic strength in Texas.
He moved most of his business here, smashing the ground in a huge project in Austin, a suburb of Waco, near Brownsville. About 45 minutes from downtown Austin, Mask’s business power is less concentrated than his corporate compound in rural Bastrop County.
And this year, mask presence in the area has been set to explode, raising hopes and concerns about what the Iron effect means for central Texas.
The new headquarters for social media platform X is built here and appears to be opening soon. His aerospace company SpaceX is more than twice the size of the next one. And then there’s Sanailbrook, which Company Town Musk is building in the complex. The Texas newsroom has learned that Musk’s “utopia” is likely to resume development by the end of the year. And it may be even bigger than previously reported.
Musk itself is not a Bastrop fixture.
But with support from generous county development rules, his investment will help change this corner of the Texas countryside. Musk has attracted him work, tourism and media attention. It boasts of being a quiet, idyllic foil for nearby Austin, along with concerns about the deterioration of the environment and the cultural changes of Bastrop.
For better or worse, locals say that change is coming.
“If Elon thought Bastrop was cool,” said Silvia Carrillo Trevino, “It has to be cool.”
Why Bastrop?
Heading east from Austin, strip malls and urban residential developments will soon fall. Once you reach the Bastrop County line, the land appears to flatten and open.
It’s mostly the farms and ranches here. When Austin knocked on the county annex in the mid-1980s, the Bastropians fought against it. Locals talk about it like it happened yesterday.
Development is increasing here. Housing developments and shopping centres are pop-up. However, most counties are not consolidated. Three major cities, Bastrop, Elgin and Smithville, boast less than 30,000 people.
Against this background, weaves musk corporate compounds. At the intersection of FM-969 and 1209, a slate of refined, sparkling buildings protrude from the lush countryside along the small bends of the Colorado River.
There’s a reason why Mask chose this area. Development in rural Texas is easy. There, there is little way for the state to stop growing into county officials. David B. Brooks, who wrote a book on Texas County law, is referred to here as the “Wild, Wild West” Rural Development Rule.
“If someone wants to do a business that no one likes (county officials) have no authority to adopt zoning ordinances like cities,” Brooks said.
Musk also found an enthusiastic partner among Bastrop County officials.
They supported his move to bring his tunnel venture, a boring company, into the area in 2021. He then opens the SpaceX facility here and the boring bodega, food mart, bars and community spaces to the public. Musk, just a few miles from Austin’s Tesla Giga Factory, did not return after he chose the area.
“They were in a hurry. They wanted to do it yesterday, and if not today, if not yesterday,” said Paul Purp, a former county judge at Bastrop. . The people with the masks hadn’t cut the corners, he said, but county officials also didn’t list the obstacles.
Pape believes Musk and other business leaders are interested in the region as a way for Bastrop to grow without being consumed by their larger city neighbours.
According to a newsroom analysis of Texas Property Records, the mask company is currently collecting more than 600 acres along the road. Part of the land has been purchased over the past few months, leaving him room for expansion.
X, SpaceX, Snailbrook
Musk will need a room if his plans come out for 2025.
According to a progress report released last year, SpaceX’s 700,000-square-foot facility will more than double the size. Earth movers and other construction equipment are already scattered across the site, with truck hauling materials running on nearby two-lane roads.
Here SpaceX produces StarLink kits. This is an individual device that allows people to access the internet remotely. This year, Starlink hopes to make the kit available to new customers in West Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and South America.
To facilitate this growth, SpaceX has been applied to become part of the Federal Foreign Trade Zone Program. This allows the company to avoid paying some taxes and duties on the products it processes on its site.
County leaders confirmed SpaceX’s demands, they told the Texas newsroom, admitting that it means losing about $75,000 in tax revenue over two years. But Musk has never asked for any other tax relief here, they said.
The latest addition to the mask’s corporate compound is X.
Last summer, during a break with California over trans rights, Musk announced that he would move Company X to Texas. The longtime home of a social media company in the famous Market Square Building, an Art Deco giant that occupies the entire San Francisco City Block, has been replaced by a temporary headquarters at East Austin Office Park.
Austin Space is currently available for rent.
According to legal filings, the permanent home of a social media company is located in an unexplained industrial building next to a boring bodega.
The X-Bill now appears to be nearing completion. During a recent visit, cars and trucks were parked by staff around the warehouse. Signs of “trespassing” were held on low rock walls outside.
Ad Astra, a private school funded by a mask nonprofit, recently opened around the corner from the compound.
But perhaps the most mysterious development of musk in this region is Snailbrook.
The fact that he wanted to build an entire town for local employees went viral when the Wall Street Journal wrote about it in early 2023.
However, it appears that there has been little growth on the ground since then. There is still a handful of mobile homes, warehouses and plenty of open farmland.
Then, last month, news broke that Musk wanted to create his own town near Brownsville on the premises of SpaceX’s rocket launch site. So is Snailbrook dead?
It’s not that fast, says mayor Carrillo Trevino. She says Snailbrook is still happening, but development won’t grow much until it gets caught up in local wastewater lines in the area under a contract between the city, SpaceX and local utility Corix.
Carrillo-Trevino estimates it is still about a year away.
“I’m just waiting,” Carrillo Trevino told the Texas newsroom in an interview with Bastrop late last month.
The plan obtained by the Wall Street Journal shows that Snailbrook has 110 homes for company employees. Carrillo-Trevino believes it could be ten times more.
“Think about how many acres he has,” she said. “There are thousands of (homes) that fit there.”
Mixed review of Elon Musk
Walking along the main streets of Bastrop city, you may not realize that Musk’s corporate complex is a 10-minute drive.
There is no X-sponsored playground here. Locals who don’t work for the company have met elusive musks. One obvious reference to his name on the street was found on the cover of his biographies at a local bookstore.
Three of the four voters in Bastrop County chose Donald Trump as president. The area is clearly conservative. However, local reviews about Trump’s new right arm were mixed in.
Rachel Tolbert lives 15 minutes down the road in Smithville.
“I love how he brings business the way we do it,” Tolbert said. “But I hope there’s no political situation that he appears to bring with him wherever he goes.”
She added:
It could be a hopeful thought.
According to Carrillo-Trevino, Bastroph has grown by 42% over the next five years.
People move into the area due to reduced housing costs, reduced traffic volumes and the natural beauty offered by the Lost Pines Forest. They’ll come here, she said, because the city reminds them of the old Austin.
They’re also coming for musk. Carrillo-Trevino is attributing about half of the promised growth to the appeal of him and his company.
However, she said there is a “fine line” between welcoming Musk and giving him free access to their land. With his business using wastewater systems, Carrillo-Trevino said the city will soon be doing more monitoring how he is developing in the area.
It’s important to protect the river, she said. Musk has already been fined for Bastrop’s environmental violations at his company in Austin, near Brownsville.
“He dumps in Colorado, and that’s upstream from us,” Carrillo Trevino said. “It’s a major tourism and environmental factor for us. I don’t want to kayak down the Poo River.”
But Pape, a former county judge, said the mask was purely positive and would be purely positive. Local leaders have the ability to handle growth concerns, including transportation and affordability, he added.
“I don’t think Mask and his industry will really change what makes Bastrop County special,” he said. “I don’t call them an issue. I call them an opportunity.”
