Billionaire-Backed California City Pitches Plans for Factory Hub

California Forever, the proposed futuristic community backed by billionaire venture capitalists, is now billing itself as a manufacturing center a year after local opposition forced it to withdraw plans to incorporate a new city.

The project’s organizers said Thursday that they plan to build the largest advanced manufacturing park in the US, calling it a bid to reclaim California’s legacy as a center for defense industries from aerospace to shipbuilding. The Solano Foundry, a 2,100-acre (850-hectare) tract, will offer proximity to Silicon Valley while providing more affordable housing, land and labor than elsewhere in the Bay Area.

The announcement is ...