SpaceX, a venture by Elon Musk, has got the approval from the Council of Los Angeles City on May 8, 2018, to build interplanetary rocket and spaceships on LA port at a 19-acre plot in San Pedro.
The Council unanimously permitted SpaceX, to build their facility on the port, located out of Hawthorne, California, and captured an abandoned tower with a lease of 30 years
Elon Musk claims the spaceships including the Big Falcon Interplanetary rocket will be capable to reach Mars by 2022.
Joe Buscaino, Member of Council, representative of Port region, referred the projected SpaceX facility as a “large Falcon deal” which has an important part in transforming San Pedro.
Buscaino further added, “There was a time when my uncle used to build ships at the same port, and now with the support of LA City Council we will soon build spaceships there.”
According to a report presented by the city in April, the site was earlier used by Southwestern marine facility to build battleship at the time of World War II.
SpaceX has got the approval from Board of Harbor Commissioners in April, which has paved the road for the approval of LA City council. As per the lease agreement, SpaceX will receive rent credits of $40 million with which the renovation of the abandon port complex, which was unoccupied since 2005, will be done, and also it need not give any rent for the facility for a period of almost 20 years.
After that, SpaceX will start paying $3 Million per year as a rent for the site. In the first phase, the company will build an 80,000 Sq. Ft. area and then it will gradually increase it to an area of 2, 00,000 Sq. Ft. The construction of the site is expected to start within a months’ duration. The company is expecting 700 employees to work at the manufacturing facility.
Beth Harrell is a reporter for Plains Ledger. After graduating from The University of Alberta,, Beth got an internship at CTV news affiliate WBC-TV and worked as a reporter and videographer. Beth has also worked as a reporter for Huff Post Canada. Beth mostly covers entertainment and community events for Plains Ledger.