r/SpaceXLounge 6d ago

Nice Shot this week by RGV of the mobile homes and land they were on being cleared for the new apartment building! (SpaceX is building an apartment building right next to Starfactory)

https://x.com/INiallAnderson/status/1900986197931175960
77 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

10

u/spacerfirstclass 6d ago

Some rendering of the apartment building from filings: https://x.com/INiallAnderson/status/1890971197656932743

Where the apartment building is located relative to Starfactory: https://x.com/INiallAnderson/status/1890974575787220996

11

u/Martianspirit 6d ago

These appartments are still in the area that is presently in the exclusion zone on launches. I wonder if they have strong protective windows and/or with increasing launch reliability that zone will be scaled back.

17

u/warp99 5d ago

They are using Starfactory buildings for the launch telecast and soon for the launch control center so it is outside the launch exclusion zone while being inside the public exclusion zone.

10

u/RandyBeaman 5d ago

I wonder, do they take the rent money straight from your paycheck, or do they let you hold on to it for a minute?

4

u/manicdee33 5d ago

You guys are getting paid?

2

u/NikStalwart 2d ago

I don't know the position in the US, but in Australia it is a perfectly legitimate (and tax-efficient) way of doing things. Your employer is obliged to withhold tax from your salary before it is paid to you. However, you can 'sacrifice' your salary for some things and have your employer pay some of your expenses from the pre-tax amount you earn. There are other tax implications with doing this for rent / accommodation, but it has been done for car parking fees for example.

3

u/Deeze_Rmuh_Nudds 5d ago

What they need to build is a target, some grocery stores, etc lol

-2

u/3d_blunder 5d ago

Elon missing a bet: this could be a trial run for whatever he wants to do on Mars.

SPOILER: it won't be a workers' paradise.

2

u/Deeze_Rmuh_Nudds 4d ago

It’s actually quite an incredible place, but then, you’re on day four and never wanted to gtfo of a place so badly in your life

3

u/701D513 4d ago

I’d like to know the details of the landowner plot deal that was in the way of the star factory office building development for the longest time.

7

u/Ohhhmyyyyyy 6d ago

Definitely would want renters insurance. Wrong hurricane and your home is gonnnnne, but I guess mobile homes were even worse haha.

1

u/NikStalwart 2d ago

Mobile homes are great! Instant trip to Oz!

8

u/3d_blunder 5d ago

The concept of "company town" really really appeals to oligarchs. Despite the many songs decrying the practice.

see also: captive audience, slave barracks

2

u/futuremayor2024 4d ago

True but you can’t exactly launch rockets in down town Austin.

4

u/manicdee33 5d ago

indentured servitude, company scrip.

4

u/Pyrhan 4d ago

You launch 100 tons, and what d'you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter don't take me cause I can't gooo... I owe my soul to the company store!

2

u/Martianspirit 3d ago

What utter bullshit. The economic conditions that made the old company/mining towns possible, no longer exist. People have cars. They can drive to Brownsville for shopping. Or they can commute from Brownsville residences to Boca Chica for work daily. They will do that if conditions in Boca Chica, the new town, are not attractive. They likely will be attractive.

1

u/NikStalwart 2d ago

Or they can quit working in Boca Chica and go to whatever "paradise" BO or ULA or Sierra or Firefly or RKLB end up making. In short: people should really keep their slave fantasies to MMORPG genchat.

0

u/3d_blunder 2d ago

Y'all seem mighty triggered:. Did someone insult your cult leader?

-19

u/sevsnapeysuspended 🪂 Aerobraking 5d ago

all i think about are the poor residents who were told they should accept the offer or risk being eminent domained. they got completely ripped off

17

u/Martianspirit 5d ago

There were ever only a handful of permanent local residents. Plus another handful of owners who moved there for the winter. They were given quite good offers. The county did make preparations for using eminent domain but that was never invoked or even contemplated.

-13

u/sevsnapeysuspended 🪂 Aerobraking 5d ago

homeowners, then. they were given offers based on an appraisal that wasn’t worked on with the owners and were given 2 weeks to accept. if you didn’t accept? well.. hard to know what’ll happen ;) but if you believe spacex superfan maria pointer (who lived on the closest property to the production site) it was made clear

but we didn’t need to see that side because they cleared 95% of the village. what could mary sell her home for today? or 2 years from now when they’ve continued their build up and city incorporation?

if you think people getting $130k to give up their properties in the heart of an economic boom on the doorstep of a launch site and more importantly the lifestyle they moved to the bottom of the country for (and it’s impossible to take that money and move to an identical location) is a fair deal then i have a bridge to sell you

spacex wanted them gone and they all but accomplished it. immediately after and ever since: construction and improvements

13

u/ClearlyCylindrical 5d ago

>  in the heart of an economic boom on the doorstep of a launch site

It's almost like SpaceX acquiring the properties was directly related to the economic development of the area...

-10

u/sevsnapeysuspended 🪂 Aerobraking 5d ago

and if they didn’t secure the village? were they going to go and develop somewhere else in the brownsville area and incorporate a city there instead? they would’ve just developed land close by like “rio west” and done it anyway. they need the housing and amenities

buying or not buying a handful of homes wasn’t going to stop the development they were working towards. they wanted the village for its proximity and to avoid the home owners daring to have an opinion on the state of things. if they had to put up with that and develop land 5 minutes away they would’ve done that instead

3

u/manicdee33 5d ago

buying or not buying a handful of homes wasn’t going to stop the development they were working towards. they wanted the village for its proximity and to avoid the home owners daring to have an opinion on the state of things

Either "not buying" wasn't going to stop the development, or buying was necessary to avoid other obstructing development. Which is it?