This story is the second in a Business Insider series about SpaceX in South Texas called "Last Town Before Mars."
By Dave Mosher
Business Insider
It's not every day that a senior official at SpaceX calls you up, asks you to sell your home to the rocket company founded by the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, and explains that your property may one day become part of a Mars spaceport.
But that call recently came for Maria Pointer, who lives full time with her husband, Ray, in Boca Chica: a lobe of coastal prairie at the southern tip of Texas that's remote and rich with wildlife. The Pointers live adjacent to a formerly quiet hamlet of several dozen houses that locals call Boca Chica Village. The nearest populated area is Brownsville, which is a 30-minute drive west and where approximately half the population lives below the poverty line.
When Maria Pointer took SpaceX's call on January 7, the official she spoke with was Dave Finlay, the company's senior director of finance and now, apparently, South Texas real-estate dealmaker. She said their conversation lasted about two hours.
His overture came after years of relative silence from SpaceX and amid disquieting uncertainty the Pointers felt about their future. The couple told Business Insider they had planned to grow old and die in their custom-built home — but SpaceX's arrival in September 2014 put a giant question mark on everything. Should they stay? Should they go? Should they spend money to improve their property or even make repairs?
Finlay sugar-coated nothing about the risk of trying to cling to Boca Chica, Maria Pointer said, adding that he addressed years' worth of pent-up questions, fears, and frustrations. So after the call with Finlay, she felt relieved — and later decided it was time to leave.
"He's a real likable guy who has enlightened all of us," she said of Finlay. "The minute he started shining a light on things, I started having closure."
Finlay didn't stop with phone calls, though. Every other week or so, from January through February, he has traveled about 1,400 miles to the area from SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, often for days, to knock on the doors of residents and make personal visits.
Finlay's goal is not to make friends. Rather, it is to convince everyone to accept a buyout offer that SpaceX floated to area homeowners in September — which many had not agreed to months later — before Musk "loses his patience," Finlay told multiple residents.
Finlay's strategy appears to be working. According to Business Insider's reporting, more than half of the remaining homes in Boca Chica have now sold to SpaceX, including the Pointers', or are near to or in closing. The rest are in other stages of dealmaking.
Key to converting some residents has been listening to them about, and even owning up to, mistakes of the past.
"They really need these houses. They're being very foolish," one resident who recently sold to SpaceX said. "As smart as they are about technological stuff, they're not smart about people."
The resident, whose identity Business Insider confirmed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to maintain their privacy.
But that call recently came for Maria Pointer, who lives full time with her husband, Ray, in Boca Chica: a lobe of coastal prairie at the southern tip of Texas that's remote and rich with wildlife. The Pointers live adjacent to a formerly quiet hamlet of several dozen houses that locals call Boca Chica Village. The nearest populated area is Brownsville, which is a 30-minute drive west and where approximately half the population lives below the poverty line.
When Maria Pointer took SpaceX's call on January 7, the official she spoke with was Dave Finlay, the company's senior director of finance and now, apparently, South Texas real-estate dealmaker. She said their conversation lasted about two hours.
His overture came after years of relative silence from SpaceX and amid disquieting uncertainty the Pointers felt about their future. The couple told Business Insider they had planned to grow old and die in their custom-built home — but SpaceX's arrival in September 2014 put a giant question mark on everything. Should they stay? Should they go? Should they spend money to improve their property or even make repairs?
Finlay sugar-coated nothing about the risk of trying to cling to Boca Chica, Maria Pointer said, adding that he addressed years' worth of pent-up questions, fears, and frustrations. So after the call with Finlay, she felt relieved — and later decided it was time to leave.
"He's a real likable guy who has enlightened all of us," she said of Finlay. "The minute he started shining a light on things, I started having closure."
Finlay didn't stop with phone calls, though. Every other week or so, from January through February, he has traveled about 1,400 miles to the area from SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, often for days, to knock on the doors of residents and make personal visits.
Finlay's strategy appears to be working. According to Business Insider's reporting, more than half of the remaining homes in Boca Chica have now sold to SpaceX, including the Pointers', or are near to or in closing. The rest are in other stages of dealmaking.
Key to converting some residents has been listening to them about, and even owning up to, mistakes of the past.
"They really need these houses. They're being very foolish," one resident who recently sold to SpaceX said. "As smart as they are about technological stuff, they're not smart about people."
The resident, whose identity Business Insider confirmed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to maintain their privacy.
1 comment:
Who cares its deserved and about time they move on...What happened to the people that lived where the zoo is at now and the people that owned property where the express is now at, the the airport expansion and on and on and nobody complained they just moved on. Ah pero son pinches gringos GIVE ME A BREAK!
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