Now Elon Musk Is Pulling a Costco

It seems that everyone is trying to get a bite of that "let's make real-estate REAL close to work for our workers" pie. You read that correctly: Elon Musk is playing with the idea of building homes in the state of Texas for his workers. Or rather, he has already begun development for the purpose of building homes for his workers.

Remember when we covered Costo trying to build housing with the thought of helping the community but also convenience for workers? Yes, it appears to be a similar situation. Apparently, the houses would be built near to the facilities for The Boring Company. If you don't remember, The Boring Company is owned by Musk and was briefly used to sell a variety of oddities including but not limited to his line of flamethrowers, but it's now registered as a tunnel construction company. The Boring Company was formed as a subsidiary of SpaceX and has had a few large and most importantly functional projects that it has been commissioned for. Thus, the housing project surrounding The Boring Company seems to have the goal of both convenience and affordability for those who work for Musk.

This project has been named "Project Amazing" and Musk plans to partner with a Florida-based house builder to build an initial 110 homes near The Boring Company's headquarters. What's more interesting is that the land is owned by Gappes Bass LLC, a company affiliated with The Boring Company, though it is not clear when land development for these housing units will start. Something else interesting is that SpaceX is expected to build a factory nearby, but so far there is no plan for separate housing for the workers there.

So, like the plans that Costco has, let's think about this situation. Will this development help the cost of housing/property in the area? Like the Costco development plan, this plan too could go either way depending on the types of clients that move in. For example, what happens if turnover is high, and these homes become a revolving door? Eventually spiteful tenants could do some damage. Or the tenants could have a more positive impact and increase the property value such that the area of Austin, Texas that is being proposed for development so much so that the cost of living becomes too high for existing residents to either buy or sell properties in the area.

The crux of this development is "will this new housing be helpful for the workers?" The answer is "it depends." Truthfully, it will depend on how family friendly and family and the terms of housing. If an employee quits or is fired, do they have to vacate the home? And if so, how quickly do they have to leave? Something else to think about is hours worked- are employees expected to spend more time at work if their housing is within a close proximity to their job? What are the rental agreements going to look like? These are the questions we are interested in that haven't been addressed yet with both Costco and The Boring Company. We will also be watching for development on the home developments for The Boring Company. 

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