The Bold City Project of the Tech Elite

With money from renowned investors and start-up billionaires, a Czech native wants to build a city for 400,000 residents in California. A visit to the major project.

Philipp Alvares de Souza Soares
December 26, 2024 – 6:05 p.m.

Solano County. It’s a warm autumn day when Jan Sramek drives his electric pickup truck onto a lonely country road in Solano County, California. He pulls over to the right and points across a dry wasteland. “It’s huge, isn’t it?” says Sramek, smiling.

In front of him lies his land – or rather, his company’s land. An area east of the famous wine-growing region of Napa Valley, a little more than half the size of the city of San Francisco. At the moment there is basically nothing there. Straight roads, pylons with power lines, a narrow stream, brown earth.

Sramek, who began his career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, wants to build a city here for up to 400,000 people. Liveable, green and, above all, affordable. Densely built according to the European model, so that it’s walkable for residents’ everyday life.

With parks, an artificial lagoon and tens of thousands of jobs. It is not intended to be just any community, but a model community for California’s future. Hence the name: “California Forever”.

Sramek’s company is one of the most unusual start-ups in Silicon Valley. His vision may sound like the typical exuberant posturing of a founder, but it is actually serious – and has already secured significant investments.

The crème de la crème of Silicon Valley

While farmers in the region want to prevent it being built, associations and some experts are full of praise. According to a study by the research institute of the Bay Area Council, a business association based in San Francisco, the project offers a rare opportunity to attract well-trained workers and correspondingly in-demand employers to a structurally weak region.

Regulation in California makes it difficult to “expand old cities on a significant scale,” says Michael Manville, professor of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In this respect, building a new community could make sense. He advocates giving California Forever a chance.

Graphic translation:
City Project: California Forever
Project Area: California Forever

Silicon Valley is already on Sramek’s side. According to media reports, he has at least $900 million in funding from investors. He himself says that more than a billion dollars have already been spent. “And there’s more,” says Sramek. Neither he nor his investors provide precise information about his finances.

They include legendary names in the tech industry: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, renowned investor and Trump fan Marc Andreessen, Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs and venture capitalist Michael Moritz are part of the group, as are brothers Patrick and John Collison, whose payments start-up Stripe made them multi-billionaires. It is the crème de la crème of Valley society.

“For most people, it is a very personal investment that goes beyond money,” says Sramek. He himself still holds a significant portion of the shares – despite the high level of commitment from investors.

The investors themselves did not respond to inquiries about their motivation. According to the New York Times, Michael Moritz promoted the project in a confidential email as a “spectacular investment”. It not only promises to solve pressing social problems, wrote the partner of legendary venture capital firm Sequoia, but also a lavish return. The conversion of the area into building land alone is expected to multiply the investment.

Reid Hoffman is one of the few who spoke publicly. “Jan simply thought of everything,” he praised in a podcast. The level of detail in the preparation sets his concept apart from similar projects. California Forever is an “ambitious” project that impresses him greatly.

Sramek’s plan is indeed ambitious. It will take 50 years. He is calculating that the first construction phase will cost two billion dollars. The final permits are still pending. Sramek says that his company will probably make a loss for the first ten years. “We raised enough money,” he reassures. California Forever currently employs around one hundred people.

Sramek does not want to simply build new houses next to a shopping mall. Bungalow boxes with double garages, connected by wide highways to a complex with a supermarket, Starbucks and nail salons, which still regularly appear in California.

Short commutes, very few cars

Sramek does not reveal the name of the city. What is more important to him is that the city is built in such a way that it preempts many of California’s existing problems. The state suffers from extremely high rent and home prices – especially in metropolises such as San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Diego. There are many well-paid jobs there. But teachers, nurses or bus drivers can no longer afford an apartment in the cities or their suburbs. After all, even a small single-family home in San Francisco can easily cost two million dollars.

As a result, commutes are getting longer. In Solano and Contra Costa County, northeast of San Francisco, almost ten percent of residents are super-commuters who spend around the three hours per day in transit.

At “California Forever,” residents should be able to afford a comfortable and sustainable life. At least, that is Sramek’s promise.

In addition to the prices, which are expected to be around $590,000 on average for a single-family home, Sramek sees the potential for innovation primarily in the dense design of the city. It is intended to create proximity instead of separating residents from one another with wide streets and large individual plots of land.

Sramek’s team is planning different types of buildings to mix singles with families, for example. Footpaths and bicycle paths lead to a shopping street in each district, where essential everyday needs can be met. Parking garages on the outskirts of the city will be connected to the residential areas by express bus lines.

For experts like UCLA professor Manville, this layout makes perfect sense. The plan offers a “more reliable” perspective on the way to a greener future than the subsequent displacement of cars, as San Jose recently attempted.

The new city is to be at least partially self-sufficient in terms of water and energy. The start-up is relying on solar energy and geothermal energy as well as an existing network of canals that previously supplied an almond plantation with groundwater. Gas pipes will not be laid at all.

Sramek also wants to set an architectural example. Most of what is being built today in the USA and other western countries is “absolutely hideous”. Monotonous, uniform design that is primarily geared towards the interests of developers.

One of the role models is Schwabing

Sramek’s role models are historic neighborhoods that were developed in the pre-automotive era. However, former working-class neighborhoods such as Schwabing in Munich or San Francisco’s Noe Valley are now unaffordable for low and middle incomes, he says. Yet they offer families the most sustainable and environmentally friendly lifestyle.

“California no longer works for people without a lot of money,” says Sramek. So it’s no wonder that more and more of them are moving to Texas or Arizona.

In order to keep the commuter rate low, the start-up wants to attract employers to the area from the outset, initially drawing them in with subsidies. In the initial phase, some of the residents will also find work in the project itself.

So far, it is mainly start-ups such as drone developer Zipline or aviation company Hadrian that have expressed interest in Sramek’s industrial park. His project lists twelve companies that want to open locations. They would also benefit indirectly: Since housing costs in Sramek’s city are considerably lower than in Silicon Valley communities such as Palo Alto or San Jose, they could pay their employees lower wages there. In addition, retailers will initially be exempt from rent.

Before the excavators can start rolling, however, Sramek and his team must first convince the current residents of Solano County of their plan. As part of the congressional elections in 2026, they will vote on whether the region’s building regulations should be adjusted accordingly. They currently prohibit the creation of so much housing outside of existing residential areas.

Secrecy creates mistrust

This year, Sramek backed out of the vote because the polls were too close. A district administrator criticized the short-term timing as “unrealistic” anyway. The clandestine approach of the start-up, which had gradually but secretly bought up the necessary land under the cover name “Flannery Associates” since its founding in 2017, also caused headwinds.

The name comes from a street that runs through the middle of the area. Only after research by the New York Times a year ago, Sramek and his elite investors were identified as the masterminds. As a result, at first, trust was low. A legal dispute with farmers who, according to Sramek’s accusation, artificially inflated the price of their land, made additional negative headlines.

Now California Forever wants to go through the usual PR and lobbying playbook. A campaign will be launched to show how the entire region will benefit financially. Sramek’s team also wants to have an environmental impact report drawn up. In order to get the nearby air force base on his side, he hired a former Air Force commander as an advisor.

If the plan works, construction should begin in 2027. Sramek and his family want to move into the first house. At the moment, his wife and children have to wait in Fairfield, a rather dreary place in the immediate vicinity of the company headquarters.

Sramek already has a relatively clear idea of ​​his future and that of his city. “I will spend the rest of my life building it.”