521K square-foot facility to be built by SpaceX in Bastrop County

Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plans to construct a 521,521 square-foot "Shell Building" in Bastrop County.

The Shell Building project is expected to begin its construction by October 2022 with a completion date of July 2023. This is according to a project filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on August 31st. The project has an estimated cost of $43 million and is about five times larger than a typical H-E-B.

Based on Austin Business Journal's (ABJ) article, the details in TDLR filings often change, but this serves as a glimpse of the rocket company's plans. ABJ also first reported on SpaceX acquiring 170 acres east of Austin.

In a June 6 filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a notice for "Project Echo" was given by SpaceX. The project was then approved to construct a 30-acre warehouse at 816 FM 1209. Project Echo began its construction on June 6 and to be completed by the end of March 2023.

The Austin Business Journal reported that this is not the first time SpaceX has been connected to the Austin area. There are job listings for SpaceX engineers which shows concrete evidence that Musk is setting up shop in the metro with most of the projects being in Bastrop County.

One of Musk's companies, The Boring Co., has been buying large tracks of land in Bastrop County in the past year. Gapped Bass LLC, an entity tied to Pflugerville-based The Boring Co. has grown its land holding to more than 250 acres along FM1209 based on the county property records.

A 46.5-acre tract along FM 1209 was transferred from Gapped Bass to SpaceX on June 9, 2022, the site of the proposed warehouse.

Read the full story in the Austin Business Journal.

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