Joby Aviation plots Marina expansion despite passing on California for its new, larger factory.

In the wake of news that electric air taxi startup Joby Aviation has passed on Marina as it considers locations for a planned 580,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, there is optimism that the Santa Cruz-based company will reinforce its commitment to the Central Coast by soon announcing an expanded presence at its Marina Municipal Airport pilot production plant.

Joby’s nationwide search for where to house its largest factory to date appears to be nearing a conclusion after TechCrunch reported on Aug. 25 that it had narrowed its choices down to Ohio and North Carolina – with Marina and Detroit, Michigan, among the locales that didn’t make the final cut.

Multiple sources with knowledge of Joby’s deliberations, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirm that Marina has indeed missed out on a large-scale project promising up to 1,800 new jobs. The decision verifies what many local stakeholders had feared – that Marina’s proposal to Joby, backed by property tax breaks offered through California’s GO-Biz economic development office, could not compete with more lucrative incentive packages pitched by other states and cities eager to lure new manufacturing.

Some local observers have bemoaned California’s unwillingness to throw robust incentives at Joby and other companies – believed to be rooted in the state’s existing economic strength, and the fact that officials don’t see a need to aggressively dole out perks to lure businesses.

Yet the Santa Cruz company and its founder and CEO, JoeBen Bevirt, have stressed that they’re still committed to California – and especially Marina, where they established operations in 2018, and have since expanded to 120,000 square feet used to develop their fleet of electric air taxis capable of shuttling passengers over short distances. Joby officially launched its pilot production line at the airport in June, and plans to build dozens of aircraft per year at the facility.

That commitment is set to play out in the form of an expansion to Joby’s Marina operations, according to multiple sources. While plans have not yet been finalized, the company is believed to be plotting a new investment in the Marina plant – potentially up to $50 million – that could roughly double its square footage to over 200,000 square feet and create up to 600 new jobs. (Joby currently employs around 400 people in Marina.)

While not commenting on specifics, Marina City Manager Layne Long confirms that the city is “continuing to work with Joby at our airport to expand their operations and manufacturing capacity.”

Joby spokesperson Oliver Walker-Jones says “no final decisions have been made” on the location of the company’s new factory, and declined to provide specifics on a possible expansion in Marina. But he adds that Joby has “grown our team [in Marina] substantially over the past year and we plan to continue that growth, with around 50 jobs currently advertised.”