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How Bezos Messed With Texas
theodp writes "The WSJ has the behind-the-spaceport story on Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Texas land grab for his Blue Origin space tourism venture. Bezos deputized an attorney (who once handled Amazon SEC filings) to make ranchers offers they couldn't refuse (and can't talk about), acquiring property through corporate entities with monikers including 'James Cook L.P.,' 'Jolliet Holdings,' 'Coronado Ventures,' and 'Cabot Enterprises' — all named for famous explorers and all using the same address, c/o [Star Trek-monikered] Zefram LLC. BTW, FAA temporary flight restrictions are in effect for Blue Origin until Monday ('DUE TO ROCKET LAUNCH ACTIVITY'). Let's hope it's more successful than Blue Origin's maiden flight."
Because it's not much fun without a moving target.
It's almost something like out of a comic book or a movie. Eccentric billionaire builds launch pad for private space flight, headline of the Daily Planet or something :)
Commercial space travel is just still so much in its infancy that it seems hard to imagine that someone is actually willing to invest such huge amounts rather than your average tinkering with miniature rockets kind of stuff.
He kept his identity a secret as is standard in most multi-property deals. The reason being that somebody could start a bidding war for some critical piece of land and potentially screw you out of a lot of money. As it was he paid a considerable amount for land that was suffering from a drought. The locals main complaint seems to be that he (a) won't support their local development ventures and (b) won't return their phone calls. The ones that got bought out sound happy enough. The only real part of this story was that Jeff Bezos purchased a plot of land in Texas for Blue Origin and that's not how it was spun.
"290,000 acers = 453 sq miles"
Nooo... 290,000 acers = a whole lot of plastic, but where's the AC Adapter? Dangit!
"Great holy armies shall be gathered and trained to fight all who embrace evil. In the name of the gods, ships shall be built to carry our warriors out amongst the stars and we will spread Origin to all the unbelievers. The power of the Ori, will be felt far and wide and the wicked shall be vanquished."
Jeff "The Prior" Bezos will walk on the land they call Texas and they will accept Origin!
If you RTFA you will see that he is paying ~$250/ acre. It is above market value but it is not really that much money for someone that rich. In fact he probably found the $7.5 M that he paid one rancher inside the cushions of his couch. If I am reading the FA correctly, he has purchased 5 to 10 ranches - each of about 30 to 60 k Acres - about 300 k acres in total. This is about $ 75 M. For someone with $4.3 B this is close to chump change. He probably earns more then that from Amazon (including options and stock value) each year. Remember Amazon is only about 10 years old - so he has averaged ~$400 M each year.
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So he bought what? Half a county? Unless he's buying up land out east, where there are some darn small counties, e.g. Rockwall County, the average county has an area between nine hundred and a thousand square miles. If you factor in the counties in the Big Bend, 1000 is somewhat under the average.
!FDC 6/6007 ZAB TX.. TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTION, VAN HORN TX. 1330-2000 DLY EFFECTIVE 0611121330 UTC UNTIL 0611132000 UTC. PURSUANT TO 14 CFR SECTION 91.143 FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE IN EFFECT DUE TO ROCKET LAUNCH ACTIVITY WITHIN A 5 NAUTICAL MILE RADIUS OF 312515N/1044515W OR THE SALT FLAT /SFL/ VORTAC 127 DEGREE RADIAL AT 25.9 NAUTICAL MILES SFC TO 10000 FT MSL. BLUE ORGIN COMPANY, TELEPHONE 253-437-9367, IS IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION. ALBUQUERQUE ARTCC /ZAB/, TELEPHONE 505-856-4500, IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY.
...than I would have thought. I guess if most sellers set their prices based on how rich the buyer is, most buyers would rather buy anonymously. This is the best explanation of Bezos' actions that I can figure.
Ever spend a winter in Wyoming, the Dakotas, or Montana? Farther south, you get a bigger window of decent weather to work with. You also have a better shot at attracting more people to work for you.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
No kidding.
I went on a long drive the last couple of weeks. The Eastward trip included those three states, and for the Westward part I went through Nebraska and Colorado instead. It's amazing how much difference it made in the temperature. Wyoming had snow and ice all over, and all three were bone-chillingly cold at night and/or if there was a lot of wind, which there usually was. And that was late fall, not winter.
Texas is also closer to the water, in case they need to ditch a rocket in the ocean. Historically, it's also had more space-related activities going on, and giving a nod to history seems pretty important to this company.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
The way this is presented "Bezos messes with Texas" is soooooo negative. If the man wants to buy land what's the problem? You don't like it - you go buy the land to stop him. Remember, Walt Disney did exactly the same thing when he accumulated land for Walt Disney World in Orlando. Want something to complain and whine about -- go back to that purchase a few years ago where Manhatten Island was had for a few shiny trinkets.... perhaps a rebate is due there? Don't forget the nasty work that local governments are up to with their powers of eminent domain; buy up properties that have been in families for many, many years to let their developer-buddies line their pockets and provide campaign contributions in return. Now *that's corrupt in my book.
Rich people are eccentric. Poor people are strange. Me, I'd be happy with odd.
I guess if most sellers set their prices based on how rich the buyer is, most buyers would rather buy anonymously. This is the best explanation of Bezos' actions that I can figure.
Not just that, but if it becomes well-known that a rich buyer, especially if it's a large company, is making a land grab, a few property owners could basically extort the buyer for more cash. That is, the current owner could say to the buyer, "I know you're trying to buy up all this land for some important reason, and I know you can't do anything until you get my land, so start adding zeros to that check until I say stop." I believe the same sort of thing happened in the early days of the US railroad system.
He knows that he can get a better price by not identifying himself, and it's his prerogative to do so. A billionaire is just as entitled to shop for a bargain as anyone else.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
A more honest article would discuss how Bezos isn't allowing the town to profit off of his purchases aside from the property deals themselves. From the article they wanted to approach him about building a museum about his project to attract some tourism, they wanted to know how many jobs his enterprise would generate.
The main point I picked up is that he is insulated with lawyers to keep from being harassed by people in a depressed region desperate to make a buck off of him.
RTFA.
This is a VTO/VL test. The first few DC-X flights were similar.
-- Alastair
I hit a frickin blizzard in the mountains of western Wyoming...in June! I was stuck at a truck stop for 8 hours waiting for the road to become passable again.
Wyoming weather sucks the big one.