A billionaire-backed development group proposing a new city in Solano County has secured long-term commitments from major construction labor organizations, signaling strong union backing for one of the most ambitious development plans in the Bay Area.
California Forever, the firm behind plans to convert roughly 70,000 acres of rural land northeast of San Francisco into a walkable city anchored by large-scale manufacturing and shipbuilding, has signed a 40-year labor agreement with the Napa-Solano Building Trades Council and the Northern California Carpenters Union. Together, the two organizations represent nearly 90,000 workers.
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Under the agreement, the majority of construction across California Forever’s 110 square miles of owned land — including office buildings, retail spaces and commercial developments — would be performed using union labor.
Jay Bradshaw, executive secretary and treasurer of the Northern California Carpenters Union, said the proposal represents a rare opportunity for the region.
“offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to bring important infrastructure, housing, renewable energy projects, manufacturing and shipbuilding opportunities, and other “thoughtfully planned” developments to Solano County.
California Forever plans to begin construction within the next two years, with an initial phase that includes more than 65,200 homes designed to house roughly 150,000 residents by 2045. At full buildout, the development could accommodate up to 400,000 people by 2065, according to company documents.
Project backers argue the city would help ease housing affordability pressures while creating a major new economic hub for the Bay Area through expanded manufacturing employment.
Bradshaw said collaboration with union labor would generate long-term employment benefits, adding that the effort will create:
“thousands of high-quality, family sustaining union jobs for decades to come.”
Last year, California Forever submitted an application asking Suisun City to annex nearby unincorporated land along State Route 12. The proposal would be reviewed by the Solano County Local Agency Formation Commission, a five-member appointed body that oversees municipal growth throughout the county.
If approved, the annexed area would become part of the Solano Foundry, which developers describe as the largest manufacturing park in the United States, with a focus on aerospace, defense, energy and robotics industries.
The company has also earmarked 7,500 acres near Collinsville for the Solano Shipyard, which supporters say could become one of the world’s largest shipbuilding facilities at full buildout.
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Not all local stakeholders support the plan. Nate Huntington, a member of the Solano Together coalition, which opposes the project, said existing cities should be prioritized.
“Cities in Solano County need investment,” Huntington said. “They need improvements to infrastructure. Funds cannot be diverted, whether it’s public funds or private funds, away from that cause.”
Huntington, who also belongs to the Greenbelt Alliance, suggested reinvesting in existing assets, such as reviving the Mare Island Dry Dock in Vallejo, rather than building a new shipyard near Collinsville.
“There will be incredible tax dollars going to this billionaire project,” he said. “In addition to that, there’s ecological and environmental impacts of these different projects.”
A report released Wednesday by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute estimated that the Suisun City expansion and Solano Shipyard projects together could generate more than $16.2 billion annually in local, state and federal tax revenue.
California Forever is one of 375 member companies of the Bay Area Council. Former council president and CEO Jim Wunderman was named the company’s head of public affairs last fall.
The report also projected that once completed, the developments would support more than 530,000 full-time jobs statewide.
Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the institute, said the scale of job creation could help address housing shortages and long commutes.
The “massive number” is something “that both the Northern California mega-region and the county itself can really hang its head on as we think about driving population growth and creating new homes in an affordable way,” Bellisario said.
Roughly 175,000 homes are planned near the foundry and shipyard sites, a move Bellisario said could reduce commute times while expanding California’s housing supply.
The report also noted that California’s manufacturing employment in March 2025 was roughly unchanged from levels 15 years earlier, attributing stagnation to other states attracting workers with lower living costs and stronger vocational pipelines.
“The manufacturing industry really has not grown in a way that allows many people to access it here in our region,” Bellisario said.
Jobs tied to the new development would emphasize skilled and vocational labor rather than traditional college pathways, allowing the sector to grow while leveraging innovation and automation emerging from Silicon Valley.
In a joint statement, Napa-Solano Central Labor Council Executive Director Glenn Loveall and Secretary-Treasurer Corey Penrose said the unions recognized both long-standing underinvestment and the need for responsible growth.
They cited “both the continued underinvestment in jobs, essential services, housing and infrastructure in this region” and “the need for accountable, equitable and sustainable growth.”
The statement added:
"This labor movement also recognizes the importance of the broader community voice in the future of growth."
Huntington said that while he supports the creation of advanced manufacturing jobs, the process must balance multiple perspectives.
Stakeholders have a responsibility to ensure that the opportunities “come to the existing cities within the existing footprint of the county,” he said.
“We should aim to preserve our agricultural and open-space land and bring investment to existing cities as they are,” he added.
Originally reported By James Salazar | Examiner staff writer in SF Examiner.
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