Joby Aviation Could Pass Over Marina in Deciding Where to Build New Factory

In the roughly five years since it set up shop at Marina Municipal Airport, electric air taxi startup Joby Aviation has been a signpost for Monterey County’s economic potential – one where forward-thinking tech and manufacturing firms could help modernize the local economy beyond its traditional bedrocks of agriculture and tourism.

Yet while Joby pushes forward with plans to manufacture a fleet of electric aircraft that would serve as short – to intermediate-distance air taxis, there are concerns Marina could be left behind. The city is one of several across the country now being considered by Joby to house a new, much larger factory that would enable it to scale up operations – and some local stakeholders fear that the startup may look beyond the Central Coast, or California entirely, to lower-cost, more business-friendly pastures.

Since leasing multiple buildings at Marina Municipal Airport in 2018, Santa Cruz-based Joby has grown to around 120,000 square feet of space where it employs around 300 people for research and development purposes, including work on its prototype. By 2020, the city of Marina had signed off on allowing Joby to build a much larger facility at the airport – a factory spanning up to 600,000 square feet that would potentially generate up to 2,000 jobs and enable Joby to ramp up production once its aircraft receives certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

But Joby has yet to start work on such a project, and in fact has been entertaining proposals from municipalities across the country before determining where it will construct its facility. With the startup now understood to be shortlisting possible locations, Marina officials are working to ensure their city remains in the running.

"We expect Marina to remain a critical strategic facility for us going forward,” explained Oliver Walker-Jones, Head of Marketing, Communications & Brand.

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