techno-ag said:

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Captn_Ag05 said:

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Certainly a ton of money, but what is the job creation prospects (direct and indirect) for a project like this?

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Potentially massive. I think the Samsung facility in Taylor had 6500 manufacturing jobs and something like 2000 high tech jobs projected over a decade.

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At the risk of sounding like a broken record- it's going to constitute nothing less than a fundamental reforming of our local economy. It's many times larger than Taylor/Hutto Samsung, and the impacts good and bad from that are happening still in that community.

It will take foresight, intergovernmental cooperation and planning to get it right. Housing must get approved faster. Roads. Economic development agreements. Schools and hospitals will be impacted. Emergency services too. Landfill operations. Everything.

It's the largest economic development deal in the history of the state of Texas.

Respectfully

Yancy '95

Personally, I think we may be overestimating the early returns from this. Yesterday, I was at the Monkey Island LNG site being built in Cameron Parish. $25 billion project. Ive seen these projects in the past and they are crazy impressive. But this time, I tried to pay more attention to how it affected the surrounding area. Obviously, traffic at shift change is the biggest thing. That's usually long streams of trucks traveling towards the parking lots at max speed for about 30-45 minutes a couple times a day. They set up big gravel lots in the outskirts of the build area. 5-15 miles out and force most of the employees to ride busses in. One thing I noticed is a very high percentage of the license plates were out of state. It looked to be mostly single guys staying in campers and RVs, paying to have laundry done at mobile laundry trailers, eating whatever local gas station/ fast food that is convenient, and likely sending 90% of their income back home. The places that will benefit the most will be fast food, lower end restaurants, gas stations, local bars, hotels, and anybody that puts in spots to park a camper. But most of the construction money will never see Brazos or Grimes county.

The real question will be, how many long term jobs does it bring and will those jobs be permanent or potentially outsourced to AI and automation.

CS78 said:

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Personally, I think we may be overestimating the early returns from this. Yesterday, I was at the Monkey Island LNG site being built in Cameron Parish. $25 billion project. Ive seen these projects in the past and they are crazy impressive. But this time, I tried to pay more attention to how it affected the surrounding area. Obviously, traffic at shift change is the biggest thing. That's usually long streams of trucks traveling towards the parking lots at max speed for about 30-45 minutes a couple times a day. They set up big gravel lots in the outskirts of the build area. 5-15 miles out and force most of the employees to ride busses in. One thing I noticed is a very high percentage of the license plates were out of state. It looked to be mostly single guys staying in campers and RVs, paying to have laundry done at mobile laundry trailers, eating whatever local gas station/ fast food that is convenient, and likely sending 90% of their income back home. The places that will benefit the most will be fast food, lower end restaurants, gas stations, local bars, hotels, and anybody that puts in spots to park a camper. But most of the construction money will never see Brazos or Grimes county.

The real question will be, how many long term jobs does it bring and will those jobs be permanent or potentially outsourced to AI and automation.

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A natural gas plant is a different animal. The skills needed for a fab plant go beyond just laying concrete. Frankly I don't mind if a worker lives in a trailer park for 2 years, that's money in the community and it leaves more houses for young families.

As for AI automation these kind of plants will always need humans. See the stats for the Samsung facility above. It's way too early I think to start poo-pooing this project when it hasn't even gotten off the ground yet.

It will be interesting to watch the annexation moves made by the cities down Hwy 30. Both cities already have corridors in that direction.

CS78 said:

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...

The real question will be, how many long term jobs does it bring and will those jobs be permanent or potentially outsourced to AI and automation.

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The Optimus robot (or some variant) will undoubtedly be the primary laborer inside Terrafab. Tesla isn't cranking out these robots for them not to be used in the most advanced cleanroom factory built to date.

Bob Yancy said:

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techno-ag said:

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Captn_Ag05 said:

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Certainly a ton of money, but what is the job creation prospects (direct and indirect) for a project like this?

---

Potentially massive. I think the Samsung facility in Taylor had 6500 manufacturing jobs and something like 2000 high tech jobs projected over a decade.

---

At the risk of sounding like a broken record- it's going to constitute nothing less than a fundamental reforming of our local economy. It's many times larger than Taylor/Hutto Samsung, and the impacts good and bad from that are happening still in that community.

It will take foresight, intergovernmental cooperation and planning to get it right. Housing must get approved faster. Roads. Economic development agreements. Schools and hospitals will be impacted. Emergency services too. Landfill operations. Everything.

It's the largest economic development deal in the history of the state of Texas.

Respectfully

Yancy '95

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What would you say are a couple of actions Brazos County and the BCS city gov'ts should take sooner rather than later to start preparing for what is coming? Any reason to wait to start working on these?

Taxing entities need to get their houses in order. With a likely increase in property valuations there will be increased pressure to reduce the tax rates.

AggiePhil said:

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What's this place supposedly going to be making again?

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Semiconductor manufacturing….chips

This is going to be the biggest thing to happen around here since A&M was founded.
I don't think we are ready.

jbeaman88 said:

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Bob Yancy said:

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techno-ag said:

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Captn_Ag05 said:

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Certainly a ton of money, but what is the job creation prospects (direct and indirect) for a project like this?

---

Potentially massive. I think the Samsung facility in Taylor had 6500 manufacturing jobs and something like 2000 high tech jobs projected over a decade.

---

At the risk of sounding like a broken record- it's going to constitute nothing less than a fundamental reforming of our local economy. It's many times larger than Taylor/Hutto Samsung, and the impacts good and bad from that are happening still in that community.

It will take foresight, intergovernmental cooperation and planning to get it right. Housing must get approved faster. Roads. Economic development agreements. Schools and hospitals will be impacted. Emergency services too. Landfill operations. Everything.

It's the largest economic development deal in the history of the state of Texas.

Respectfully

Yancy '95

---

What would you say are a couple of actions Brazos County and the BCS city gov'ts should take sooner rather than later to start preparing for what is coming? Any reason to wait to start working on these?

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Convene a round table of electeds and Econ dev professionals to talk it out; assemble a list of available properties and tracts county wide where we'd all prefer inbound suppliers look first, depending upon industry type. Consider a common Econ dev strategy and incentive packages based on job creation and everyone agree to stick to it and not break the bank fighting over prospects.

Let the Greater Brazos Partnership do what we've hired them to do and serve as the Econ dev clearinghouse, of sorts.

Convene a roundtable of development pros and compare notes on total housing units by type, county wide, both approved and in the pipeline. Ascertain a target housing number and streamline / fast track permitting processes to get there, quickly.

Reach out to Taylor and Hutto elected officials and hear their story, which books will be written about someday.

They weren't prepared. We should be. Those are top of mind things, to answer your question.

Gotta run. Out of state family just arrived en masse.

Respectfully

Yancy out

AggiePhil said:

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Since when was SpaceX in the chip business?

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Since they saw what happened with previous worldwide chip shortages such as COVID and they couldn't control the complicated global supply chain. The plan is for this factory to integrate the whole process in one site, which has never been done before in history.

AggiePhil said:

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Since when was SpaceX in the chip business?

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Apparently the marketplace cannot produce chips fast enough for what Musk is trying to accomplish so he's going to build them himself.

He needs them for the Optimus robot, to go into Tesla vehicles, to go into Starlink satellites and to go into orbital Data Centers. The orbital Data Centers would be cooled by space and powered by the sun- rather than using our water and electricity.

Now I'm really out! :-)

Respectfully

Yancy '95

That makes the upcoming elections all that more important!

AggiePhil said:

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Since when was SpaceX in the chip business?

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SpaceX is the parent company of Terafab. Most people on here don't know what Terafab is.
Lots of companies make or partner with someone to make their own chips. Just not on this scale.

Yes I am old and yes I have a problem with Government at all levels.
All I have to say is Musk will do a great job enriching himself and his stock holders and our local officials will make a big mess of the entire situation. And the locals will bear the burden.

Muzzleblast said:

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Mostly H1B and their chain migration. Won't be much for locals. That's the SpaceX model.
Enjoy the curry.

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Negative. Go look at their launch site in South Texas. They bring in highly skilled, highly paid people. Musk built a city for them down there. This is one of the top companies in the country, in the world right now. It's a big deal.

Bob Yancy said:

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jbeaman88 said:

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Bob Yancy said:

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techno-ag said:

---

Captn_Ag05 said:

---

Certainly a ton of money, but what is the job creation prospects (direct and indirect) for a project like this?

---

Potentially massive. I think the Samsung facility in Taylor had 6500 manufacturing jobs and something like 2000 high tech jobs projected over a decade.

---

At the risk of sounding like a broken record- it's going to constitute nothing less than a fundamental reforming of our local economy. It's many times larger than Taylor/Hutto Samsung, and the impacts good and bad from that are happening still in that community.

It will take foresight, intergovernmental cooperation and planning to get it right. Housing must get approved faster. Roads. Economic development agreements. Schools and hospitals will be impacted. Emergency services too. Landfill operations. Everything.

It's the largest economic development deal in the history of the state of Texas.

Respectfully

Yancy '95

---

What would you say are a couple of actions Brazos County and the BCS city gov'ts should take sooner rather than later to start preparing for what is coming? Any reason to wait to start working on these?

---

Convene a round table of electeds and Econ dev professionals to talk it out; assemble a list of available properties and tracts county wide where we'd all prefer inbound suppliers look first, depending upon industry type. Consider a common Econ dev strategy and incentive packages based on job creation and everyone agree to stick to it and not break the bank fighting over prospects.

Let the Greater Brazos Partnership do what we've hired them to do and serve as the Econ dev clearinghouse, of sorts.

Convene a roundtable of development pros and compare notes on total housing units by type, county wide, both approved and in the pipeline. Ascertain a target housing number and streamline / fast track permitting processes to get there, quickly.

Reach out to Taylor and Hutto elected officials and hear their story, which books will be written about someday.

They weren't prepared. We should be. Those are top of mind things, to answer your question.

Gotta run. Out of state family just arrived en masse.

Respectfully

Yancy out

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You will make an excellent mayor, Mr. Yancy.

hopeandrealchange said:

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Yes I am old and yes I have a problem with Government at all levels.
All I have to say is Musk will do a great job enriching himself and his stock holders and our local officials will make a big mess of the entire situation. And the locals will bear the burden.

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Really hope this works out for Musk. He's definitely hurting financially.

Captn_Ag05 said:

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hopeandrealchange said:

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Yes I am old and yes I have a problem with Government at all levels.
All I have to say is Musk will do a great job enriching himself and his stock holders and our local officials will make a big mess of the entire situation. And the locals will bear the burden.

---

Really hope this works out for Musk. He's definitely hurting financially.

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Yes, Elon is putting all his chips into BCS....this is barely a blip on his radar. I don't care what people's politics are.

People on the GC FB pages wanting to boycott the business of the county commissioners. Can't imagine why it's hard to get good people to run for office.

EBrazosAg said:

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People on the GC FB pages wanting to boycott the business of the county commissioners. Can't imagine why it's hard to get good people to run for office.

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They would have been with the people complaining about the Alaska purchase back in the day. Some people just can't comprehend a good deal for the community when it's dropped in their laps.

I'm not buying rocket fuel on Fridays from now on!!!

I was just browsing TexAgs, and happened upon this thread. Quite interesting reading, and it does sound like a complete makeover of the 2 counties. I think it's great for TX and the US as a whole.

I do have one comment about those who moved out into the country 20 or 30 or even 40+ years ago and don't want or like the change, Well, you didn't move far enough away from population centers. It's just like building a summer camp in the flood plain, eventually flood waters will overtake you. In the same way, progress, development, suburban encroachment, etc. are overtaking your property. It's as impossible to stop the inexorable change as it is to hold back flood waters with your hands.

I have lived in a very rural section of New Mexico for over 30 years. Things are pretty static around here, and will no doubt stay close to the same for the next 30 years. So move WAAAAY out, and you won't have to worry about it. Try and find a place that is at least 60 miles away from the nearest Walmart, and I reckon you will be safe from modern civilization. [I'm 65 miles from the nearest Walmart, FYI].

That public forum was pretty hard to listen to. Pretty amazing that a lot of the people speaking were highly misinformed about what was even being built. One lady clearly did not understand what a tax abatement was and I can only imagine how hard it was to keep your mouth shut in there.

Things are about to get crazy around here. Think we'll get to expand Easterwood? Still a lot closer than Bush.

jbeaman88 said:

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AggiePhil said:

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Since when was SpaceX in the chip business?

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Since they saw what happened with previous worldwide chip shortages such as COVID and they couldn't control the complicated global supply chain. The plan is for this factory to integrate the whole process in one site, which has never been done before in history.

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It's a lot more than that. The orbital shell of data center satellites SpaceX wants to build requires so much more chip output than what's currently available that it boggles the mind.

The US currently has an average electrical load of about 480 gigawatts. At full build out and operational capacity the Terafab is intended to produce enough chips PER YEAR that they would add 1 terawatt to that number. We can't add that kind of grid base load for a lot of reasons.