SpaceX extends Boca Chica purchase deadline, will do new appraisals
SpaceX has agreed to do new appraisals on the private homesites in Boca Chica that it wishes to purchase, while also agreeing to extend the deadline for owners to accept their offer.
It appears that Musk invited the owners to his Starship presentation on September 28, and then met with some of them afterward to discuss the situation face to face.
Musk met with seven villagers following the presentation, though others … gave up waiting for him to show.
Cheryl Stevens, who owns a house down the street from the Heatons, did stick around. The meeting was “sort of testy” at first, as the owners confronted Musk with their concerns after waiting a long time, though the mood eventually lightened, she said. “We all had things we wanted to say,” Stevens said. “He was good about listening to what we said, then referring to what we said. … I left there feeling OK. Overall it was fairly cordial, just testy at the beginning. At least we felt like we were heard.”
At the same time, she said, “I’m not interested in giving my house away.”
This is the kind of thing that Musk does very well. Rather than stay in his ivory tower, as most modern big corporate heads, he talks with people directly. I expect SpaceX will end up offering these people deals where they can buy homes relatively comparable to what they have now, in a similar location. This will engender good will, and good press for the company.
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SpaceX has agreed to do new appraisals on the private homesites in Boca Chica that it wishes to purchase, while also agreeing to extend the deadline for owners to accept their offer.
It appears that Musk invited the owners to his Starship presentation on September 28, and then met with some of them afterward to discuss the situation face to face.
Musk met with seven villagers following the presentation, though others … gave up waiting for him to show.
Cheryl Stevens, who owns a house down the street from the Heatons, did stick around. The meeting was “sort of testy” at first, as the owners confronted Musk with their concerns after waiting a long time, though the mood eventually lightened, she said. “We all had things we wanted to say,” Stevens said. “He was good about listening to what we said, then referring to what we said. … I left there feeling OK. Overall it was fairly cordial, just testy at the beginning. At least we felt like we were heard.”
At the same time, she said, “I’m not interested in giving my house away.”
This is the kind of thing that Musk does very well. Rather than stay in his ivory tower, as most modern big corporate heads, he talks with people directly. I expect SpaceX will end up offering these people deals where they can buy homes relatively comparable to what they have now, in a similar location. This will engender good will, and good press for the company.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
The article is worth reading. If Space X is going to be conducting flight operations, they should buy out the property owners.
However.
The property owners make Boca Chica, TX, sound like Boca Chica, Dominican Republic (I checked images from both places). As for the compensation some these folks are hinting at, and particularly for the part-time residents, methinks they doth protest too much.
They should get a premium.
As I have mentioned before…. This is the bit of capitalism I can get behind!
A private company wants to buy a private persons property…. The going sale price is whatever the house owner will accept.
SpaceX has pretty deep pockets at this point, and to be fair…. Almost everything privately owned has its price.
No doubt the owners with the wherewithal to hold out will make a handsome profit, and I respect them for it!
( It might even give them the funds to pay for their kids education and medical insurance!) ;-)
I think there is definitely a bit of windfall greed happening here on the part of the homeowners. They were offered THREE TIMES the appraised value. Even if the appraisal is artificially low, it’s not off by THAT much. And it’s not like there are going to be any other buyers, and if you hold out long enough, the county IS going to eventually use eminent domain, it’s just not reasonable for people to be living that close to an active spaceport.
On the flip side, nobody wants to be forced to sell, for many of them it’s probably very neat to live that close to all this activity, and you might as well try for the most you can get.
But I won’t have much sympathy for people that are still holding out months from now.
@David… I don’t see the problem… Apart from the landowner and SpaceX…
I remember seeing guys in the woods repeating how they would never leave Mnt St. helans. As far as I am aware, they are still buried under the pyroclastic flows.
SpaceX can sign a contract with these guys, giving SpaceX freedom from prosecutions , and the guys living there a nice living.
As long as a rocket pro-tyoe doesn’t land on their head! ;-)
Maybe one or two are thinking that they can rent out RV parking for closer than NASA launch observations.