Joby Aviation Acquires Additional Facility to Expand Operations
Joby Aviation’s 47,500 sq ft facility near Hollister, CA. Image credit: Joby Aviation
Santa Cruz’s Joby Aviation, a pioneer in the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) space, has officially expanded its regional footprint once more. The company recently dropped $15 million on a 47,500-square-foot vacant warehouse near the Hollister Municipal Airport in San Benito County.
For decades, this location was just “a little airport surrounded by a lettuce field,” according to Ken Lindsay, the developer of the warehouse. Today, it has evolved into a nascent breeding ground for vehicles that aim to reimagine how people get from Point A to Point B.
A Growing Aerospace Ecosystem
California’s Central Coast has quietly become the silicon valley of the skies. Thanks to consistently sunny, clear weather and a high concentration of small, uncongested airports surrounded by wide-open land, the region is the ultimate playground for next-gen aviation.
The new Hollister site places Joby right in the thick of a booming 100-acre tech hub known as the Air Park Business Center. Joby will be sharing the airspace with some of the industry's biggest innovators, including competitor Wisk Aero, hydrogen-electric startup ZeroAvia, and flying car developer Alef Aeronautics.
But while Hollister is the new hotspot, Joby’s roots remain deeply tied to the local community. The company still runs its primary manufacturing facility in nearby Marina (Monterey County) and maintains flight test operations in San Carlos, proving that the Central Coast is the true epicenter of air taxi manufacturing.
So, what exactly is happening inside this massive new $15 million warehouse? Joby is gearing up for the ultimate finish line: commercialization.
In a email to Costar News, where this news originally broke out, a Joby spokesperson confirmed the industrial facility will be used to “support Joby’s flight-testing operations.” She noted that this testing is “a critical phase in the aircraft certification process that allows FAA pilots to evaluate the aircrafts’ performance.”
As Joby inches closer to bringing its airborne Ubers to the masses, this latest acquisition is a massive win for our regional tech ecosystem. We couldn't be prouder to watch a homegrown Santa Cruz company lead the global race toward the future of transportation. Keep your eyes on the skies!
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