California Cities Hope Trump’s Buildup Will Bring Shipyards to the Central Valley

‘We did it before. We can do it again,’ Stockton’s mayor said. But Collinsville in nearby Solano County has also been proposed.

An undated photo of the east complex of the Port of Stockton.Courtesy of the Port of Stockton

While awaiting President Donald Trump’s expected executive orders and further moves to bolster the U.S. shipbuilding industry, at least two California cities have announced their interest in building shipyards in the Central Valley with excitement, caution, and a bit of rivalry.

“[Trump] has spoken on record, he has said this nation was a leader in shipbuilding,” Christina Fugazi, mayor of Stockton in San Joaquin County, told The Epoch Times on March 26. “Well, now you have places like China that are doing shipbuilding. We need to be more competitive. We can do it here ourselves. We did it before. We can do it again. And if he’s looking for a location, I’m going to sell him on the Port of Stockton.

“We have 4,200 acres. I don’t know who has that many acres that are in an area that’s directly attached to the water through the port. It’s industrialized land, and we’ve done it before. And we have rail that already connects to that location.”

Fugazi asked federal and state leaders “to designate Port of Stockton as the national hub for rebuilding American shipbuilding” in a March 23 statement.

Fugazi said she was responding to an earlier announcement of another shipbuilding site discussion, by Mayor Edwin Okamura of the City of Rio Vista in Solano County, about 30 miles northwest of Stockton.

“I want Stockton to be the location for building ships in the United States,” she said.

Collinsville Proposed 

Okamura wrote on Facebook that he and the city manager had attended an online meeting on March 19 “with California Forever, retired military leaders, and county officials to discuss a shipbuilding executive order that President Trump is expected to sign shortly.”

“A proposed site for this initiative is near Collinsville—an area long suspected as a potential port,” he wrote. “Early discussions suggest tax incentives for shipbuilding and related businesses; federal infrastructure funding (including Hwy 12); and immediate job creation.

“This is still in the early stages, and we are gathering information.”

Collinsville, an unincorporated waterfront community in south Solano County, is on the north bank of the Sacramento River, which flows west to end at Suisun Bay before joining San Francisco Bay to enter the Pacific Ocean.

Collinsville is about 16 miles southwest of Rio Vista, which is also in Solano County.

“There are a lot of economic development benefits that the entire region will see,” Okamura told The Epoch Times on March 26.

However, for a project of this scope, Okamura said, while everyone is quick to jump on board, he has concerns about “unintended consequences.”

For example, when Mare Island Naval Shipyard was decommissioned in 1996 after more than 140 years in operation, the city of Vallejo, which hosted the shipyard, also in Solano County, had to file for bankruptcy in 2008, and “they still haven’t recovered fully from it,” he said.

Okamura said the balance between military and commercial portions of shipbuilding on the site would be an important factor to consider.

“It makes more sense to be in Solano County simply because there’s synergy between Travis Air Force Base,” Okamura said, while acknowledging that there are infrastructure issues that need to be mitigated before building a shipyard at Collinsville, which is about 20 miles south of the base.

California Forever, founded and led by Silicon Valley billionaire Jan Sramek, has aimed to build a new city on about 17,500 acres in southeastern Solano County it has acquired in the past years, according to its website.

The proposed new city is within 20 miles north of Collinsville and adjacent to Rio Vista.

The Epoch Times reached out to California Forever for comment but did not hear back by publication time.

Stockton’s History

Fugazi said Stockton has a better foundation for shipbuilding than Collinsville.

“Stockton has the bones, the workforce, and the legacy to make this initiative a success—without the risks and uncertainty of starting from scratch on a greenfield site,” she said in the statement, referring to the farmland nature of Collinsville.

According to the Stockton Visitors Center and Fugazi, the agricultural city hosted a shipbuilding hub during the early 1900s and continued through World War II under the U.S. War Department.

Fugazi’s pursuit is also personal. She told The Epoch Times that her great-great-grandfather Benedetto Ratto was one of the pioneers who helped build the deep water channel of Stockton port back in the 1880s.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

When asked about regional collaboration on the potential shipyard, Okamura said that whether the site is Stockton, Vallejo, or Collinsville, “there would be a collaboration across the entire region” for workers, and components manufactured at different locations.

Fugazi said the city would need a workforce from different parts of the region if Stockton is selected. She envisioned apprenticeship programs to train workers.

“This would create so many jobs for us right here,” she said, noting these would be high-paying jobs that would allow people to purchase their own houses instead of being lifetime renters.

Fugazi said she plans on going to Washington in May with some California delegates.

“I am hoping to get in front of whomever I need to do this pitch, then I’m going to say, hey, come out to Stockton, come out, see what the Port of Stockton has to offer,” she told The Epoch Times.

Trump’s Vision

In his address to Congress on March 4, President Trump unveiled his plan to revive domestic shipbuilding.

“To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding,” he said.

Trump said there would be tax incentives to boost domestic shipbuilding.

It is expected that the president will sign an executive order in the coming weeks.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Edwin Okamura’s name. The Epoch Times regrets the error.