The American billionaire, owner of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, has a crazy new project. His name: “Snailbrook”.
Welcome to Snailbrook, in “Texan utopia” by Elon Musk. According to information from wall street journal (paid article, in English), the boss of the astronautics company SpaceX, the car manufacturer Tesla or the social network Twitter plans to build a city in Texas. A year after the announcement, in April 2022, of the opening of a gigantic Tesla factory in this southern state of the United States, the billionaire seems to have lost none of his dreams of excess, planning to bring out of the ground an entire city, in particular devoted to the housing of the employees of its companies.
According to the American daily, which had access to notarial and land documents, Elon Musk wants to build his locality “on part of the thousands of hectares of pasture and agricultural land” recently purchased, about fifty kilometers from Austin, the Texas capital, in Bastrop County. “According to Texas law, a town must have a population of at least 201 before it can file an application for incorporation and then obtain approval from a county judge, … who did not receive an application for incorporation. that Sens” for now, specify wall street journal.
Document in support, the American daily affirms that the size of the land acquired by the billionaire is equivalent to “3,500 acres”, i.e. approximately 1,400 hectares, i.e. approximately “four times Central Park”the green lung of New York City, which measures 341 hectares.
Rents below market price
What would Snailbrook look like? “His former girlfriend, singer Grimes, [le rappeur] Kanye West and the architectural designer of [ce dernier] discussed several times last year what a ‘Musk town’ might look like, according to people familiar with those discussions”expose the wall street journalstating that “these discussions resulted in general ideas and visual models, but did not lead to concrete plans”.
The daily, describing “photos taken from Facebook” and citing “people who know the city well”reports that“a swimming pool, an outdoor sports area and a gymnasium” have already come out of the ground. On site, a sign displaying “Snailbrook” is also visible.
/2023/03/15/6411f03a54722_063-1473377708.jpg)
The name “Snailbrook” (“Snail” in French) is a reference to one of Elon Musk’s companies, The Boring Company. When the billionaire has “launched this tunneling company, he challenged his employees to build drilling machines that moved ‘faster than a snail'”note it Wall Street Journal. In a tweet, the journalist of the American daily, Christopher Mims, reports on the construction “warehouses”for The Boring Company and SpaceX, and construction planning “of a hundred houses”.
According to the journalist, Elon Musk’s plan is to found a “corporate city” where employees of its various companies would stay, offering rents below market prices. The median rent in Bastrop County “is about $2,200 a month”, advances the American newspaper. But since “Last year”employees of Elon Musk “can apply for housing for a minimum rent of approximately $800 per month”. But “Texan utopia” has its limits. “If an employee leaves or is terminated, they must leave the accommodation within 30 days”, also let the daily know.