TechCrunch has learned that the family of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, one of the investors behind the hoped-for utopian city “California Forever” in Solano County, California, is planning a major community development in the area.

Andreessen is married to Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, whose father, a Silicon Valley real estate mogul, bought land in Solano County decades before his death in 2022, according to county records obtained by TechCrunch. An LLC operated by Arrillaga-Andreessen’s brother known as A&P Children Investments has begun the planning process for a mixed-use development with more than 1,000 homes.

That area is on the outskirts of the city of Vacaville, 10 miles from the proposed California Forever development, according to property records, planning documents and registry information reviewed by TechCrunch. An A&P representative said at a town hall meeting in March that A&P plans to eventually sell the property to benefit Arrillaga-Andreessen and her brother, John Arrillaga Jr.

Andreessen, Arrillaga-Andreessen and Arrillaga Jr. did not respond to requests for comment.

Two other parcels of land owned by the LLC that are not part of the proposed Vacaville project are even closer to California Forever. This land – about 600 acres – is across the highway and several miles from where California Forever plans to build its solar farm.

In total, the Arrillaga family co-owns at least three parcels totaling about 730 acres in the area, which records show were originally purchased in 1985 by their father, billionaire real estate developer John Arrillaga Sr., and his business partner Richard Peery. The sale of any of the properties would also likely benefit Peery’s children, since he is listed in state records as a co-director of A&P. A spokesman for Peery Arrillaga, the real estate firm founded by the two men, declined to comment.

California Forever is a planned community that will be built on over 60,000 acres of land that several members of Silicon Valley’s elite have been quietly buying in Solano County since 2017. Investors in this land include Andreessen, as well as Mike Moritz, Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs, who together have invested nearly a billion dollars to achieve one goal: to build a new utopian city free of the ills that plague places like San Francisco, according to the New York Times.

California Forever project managers were unaware of Andreessen’s wife and brother-in-law’s connection to A&P Children Investments when they began acquiring the land in 2017 and “never made an offer” for the LLC’s land, a spokesman said.

“We didn’t know that the Arrillaga and Peery families owned land in Solano County until about two years ago, when the project had already been underway for five years,” the spokesperson said, adding that there was “nothing dramatic” about how the project learned about it. “We looked up who owned land near our property and found A&P. We looked up A&P and saw that it was owned by the Arrillaga and Peery families.”

Erin Morris, Vacaville’s community development director who oversees the East of Leisure Town Road Specific Plan, which includes the A&P Children Investments property, has never spoken to A&P’s owners. “I don’t think any of the staff has either,” she said.

She added that plans to develop this property were already in the works “before we even heard of California Forever,” and later clarified that the beginnings of the A&P Children development date back to 2015 – two years before California Forever was founded.

For Arrillaga-Andreessen and her brother, building a residential project may be more lucrative than selling the vacant land – especially if interest in the area increases with plans for a nearby, high-profile project such as “California Forever.”

“It’s time to build something”

Andreessen’s motto, “It’s time to build,” has become a rallying cry for years as he advocates for more housing across the country (except in his own neighborhood).

California Forever, about 60 miles from San Francisco, could be seen as a response to that call. But the project suffered a major setback last month when a crucial ballot proposal had to be delayed for two years due to a lack of local trust and support.

Regardless of whether the proposed development receives the necessary zoning and permits to proceed as planned, Solano County is a hotbed for lucrative development. Demand for housing has risen so high that “anything you build in Vacaville will sell,” said Curtis Stocking, a Vacaville-based real estate agent who has had several clients sell land to California Forever.

A&P Children Investments LLC certainly took a different approach than California Forever in obtaining permits for its proposed construction project.

Jan Sramek, the CEO of California Forever, is reportedly buying up large parts of the county and has been heavily criticized by local politicians and residents. Many of them publicly attacked him for coming to the county with big plans but few details.

Meanwhile, A&P Children’s Vacaville development is moving forward. At a city council meeting in April, Greg Brun, a representative of A&P Children, called the proposed development plans “visionary.”

“What we want to do here is something that is unique to Solano County and really to most of California,” he said. He stressed that this is their chance to plan a major project that “doesn’t have the problems that have existed in the past.”

Morris, who works for Vacaville, agreed. She explained that typically developers prepare the plan for the land and then submit it to the city for review. But A&P Children and the owners of adjacent properties that will be developed are “basically giving the city the money” to oversee the creation of the plan and hire their own environmental and zoning consultants.

Although the process is still in its very early stages, A&P has already submitted to city officials a rough draft of a proposed residential development that includes duplexes, townhomes and single-family homes on micro lots “across all price ranges.” All of these will “blend seamlessly into the existing residential neighborhoods to the north and south of the project and support walkability,” the group wrote in April. The development would potentially include a 3.9-acre mixed-use commercial area, two 1.5-acre parks and 4.9 acres of additional park and open space with walking trails.

Brun stressed that the owners were not “unreliable investors” but a family that had owned the land for decades, according to the minutes of the meeting.

Property records show these statements to be true, although Arrillaga Sr. was not necessarily a local who had lived with the residents for years. Rather, he was a real estate developer who made his fortune by quietly buying up land in the Bay Area before Silicon Valley boomed and tech companies built massive campuses there. He and Peery kept the vacant lots in Solano County as an inheritance for their children.

“It was a long-term investment for their children,” Brun said.

Lessons from a father-in-law, a real estate magnate

In the 1960s, Arrillaga Sr. envisioned a Silicon Valley that didn’t yet exist. Back then, the Bay Area was mostly orchards and farmland. But Arrillaga Sr., a Stanford University graduate, saw the burgeoning semiconductor industry and made a prescient bet: He teamed up with Peery, bought up thousands of acres of cheap land, and immediately erected a series of empty concrete office buildings. Together, they laid the framework of Silicon Valley and waited for the real companies to catch up.

By the 1980s, the wait was over. Companies like Oracle and Cisco were growing rapidly and desperately needed more space, which Arrillaga Sr. and Peery were happy to provide, according to Fortune. The duo quickly became real estate kings, building offices for LinkedIn, Apple and Google, and becoming billionaires in the process.

In 1985, the couple’s focus shifted north, according to property records obtained by TechCrunch. They bought the 730 acres in Solano County, divided it into three mostly rectangular agricultural lots, and transferred the land to Arrillaga Sr.’s children in 1998. In 2006, Arrillaga Sr. and the children transferred ownership of the land one last time to A&P Children Investments, which is operated by Peery and Arrillaga Jr., according to records filed with the California Secretary of State.

About a decade later, Andreessen followed in his father-in-law’s footsteps and invested in a city that didn’t yet exist — one that would be built just a few miles from land Arrillaga Sr. had bought 30 years earlier. Andreessen told Fortune in 2014 that he often asked Arrillaga Sr. for advice. He is currently chief financial officer of Arrillaga Sr.’s Arrillaga Foundation, according to a TechCrunch review of California state records.

California Forever’s strategy is similar to Arrillaga’s: both targeted cheap agricultural land, both operated largely in secret, and both set out to build metropolises before there was any discernible demand for them.

The A&P Children Investments property, which is across the street from the proposed California Forever, is not currently zoned for development, meaning it will remain vacant for now. The Vacaville property, however, is more advanced. Morris said the city is beginning a three-year planning process before the zoning plan may be approved.

Although A&P Children takes a markedly different approach than California Forever, the project still faces ongoing anger over the controversial utopia. At the April meeting, a resident mentioned the ambitious project and warned the City Council to be cautious about approving further development. “We don’t know how the Magic City at Rio Vista will turn out,” he said, referring to California Forever. “Why should we rush?”

During the meeting, one citizen after another spoke out against further construction. “Ask yourself if this is the dream,” said Wendy Breckon, another Vacaville resident. “For the residents here, this is not the dream.”

But Andreessen’s family could still score an easier victory with the A&P project in Solano County. Vacaville is “such a beautiful area,” Stocking said, adding that “the demand for housing is already great enough.”