Telsa officials gave more details on its proposed $1 billion Cybertruck factory in the Austin area.

Rohan Patel, Tesla’s director of policy and business development, and Valerie Workman, Tesla’s head of human resources for North America, appeared via video before the Travis County Commissioners Court Tuesday afternoon.

Tesla is seeking a 20-year tax abatement on the project. It would pay all of its taxes due and then be rebated 80 percent for the first ten years and 65 percent for the last ten years if it meets all the county’s requirements, said Diana Ramirez, Travis County’s Director of Economic Development and Strategic Investment. Tesla has also agreed to spend at least 10 percent of its rebate supporting various social service programs in the Austin area.

The meeting which lasted more than four hours also featured staff presentations and recommendations on the Tesla factory and about 50 people called in to voice their support and opposition to the Tesla factory. The Travis County Commissioners did not take any action on the project, but plan to review it again at next week’s meeting, said Travis County Judge Sam Briscoe.

Tesla’s proposed Gigafactory will create 5,000 new jobs. The plant’s jobs will have an average annual salary of $47,147 with full benefits, according to the filing with the Texas County Commissioners. The jobs will pay at least $15 an hour.

The plant is to be located on 2,100 acres at SH 130 and Harold Green Road. It’s currently a sand and gravel site owned by Martin Marietta. 

Tesla has not yet made a final decision on where its plant will be located. It is considering Austin and some other locations.

“Over the last five months, our team has heard from nearly every state and governor east of the Rocky Mountains,” Patel said.

“I just want to say that our factory will have a huge environmental positive impact, and as we have elsewhere, we’re going to design that into the factory itself,” Patel said. “That includes recycling elements into every part of the facility for its products, for water, for heat.”

There are pros and cons to each site Tesla is considering in the Austin region and Travis County and elsewhere outside of Texas, Patel said.

“Compared to other states, you’ve got high property taxes in Texas,” Patel said. “That’s especially true for businesses like Tesla with extremely high machinery and equipment costs. So we’ve got as part of our production, literally some of the most expensive equipment on the planet. And that’s considered part of the property taxes in Texas.”

Other states and local governments are providing much more significant tax incentive agreements, Patel said. In many cases, completely eliminating property taxes and other business taxes for 20 years plus, he said.

“We haven’t asked for that in Texas, but similar to what other larger manufacturers have in place in order to make the economics work for us, but maybe, more importantly, to provide a win for the county, to provide a win for the school district and a win for the community,” Patel said. “The incentives here in Texas and in Travis County would not be a reason for us to choose this location or Texas, but they are a prerequisite to make the economics of a factory work.”

Patel highlighted three reasons Austin and Travis County and this particular site have risen to the top in Tesla’s search. Number one is Tesla needs a diverse workforce in terms of people and skillsets, ranging from production workers to engineers.

“About two-thirds of the workforce that we’re going to need will be production associates, entry-level work,” he said. “With a high school degree with a little training, we can get you out there. And the Austin region has that workforce in terms of the high-level PHDs but also in terms of some of the production associates that we would need and material handlers.”

Number two is the site along the Colorado River has the potential to be “great for recreation, for beauty, and the vision of being able to potentially transform an old mining site into a sustainable factory with recreational opportunities, that’s just a vision that fits perfectly with our mission,” Patel said.

And finally, Tesla has had a lot of meetings with the school district and believes strongly that a partnership with Del Valle Schools would be advantageous for the local students and would also be advantageous for Tesla in terms of accelerating our efforts to mentor students, to develop and train the next generation of the workforce, Patel said.

He also said one of his favorite meetings was with Dr. Colette Pierce Burnette, president of Huston-Tillotson University and if Tesla picks Travis County, a partnership with Huston-Tillotson will be at the top of his list of priorities from day one, he said.

Tesla is committed to hiring locally to fill the jobs at its plant wherever it chooses to locate, said Workman. She also went into detail about the training programs Tesla provides and its outreach to local teachers and students. Tesla wants to get kids interested in sustainability from a young age, she said.

Travis County has received letters of support for the Tesla plant from Huston-Tillotson University, The University of Texas, Austin Community College, Workforce Solutions Capital Area, Opportunity Austin, the Hispanic Chamber, the Asian Chamber, the Black Chamber, the LGBT Chamber, the Greater Austin Chamber, and the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association.

In addition, Travis County Commissioners have received 190 emails in support of the Tesla factory and 60 against it, said Ramirez, Travis County’s Director of Economic Development and Strategic Investment.

Callers in opposition to the plant raised concerns about Elon Musk, a billionaire, receiving tax incentives. They also voiced concerns about Tesla’s treatment of employees and their efforts to unionize at plants. Some were concerned that the pay was too low for Travis County residents and it would put an additional burden on the county to supply affordable housing. Another caller worried that Tesla would not honor its commitments to Travis County. One caller voiced concerns about additional environmental emissions the plant would create. Another caller said that Tesla hadn’t done enough to keep its employees safe during the COVID-19 pandemic at its California plant. And they worried that type of behavior might occur here.

Callers in favor of the plant praised the investment it would bring to a part of Travis County that needs more corporate investment. Some also applauded Musk and his vision and said that Tesla is working to save the planet. Others said it would be a huge benefit for the Del Valle Independent School District to have Tesla as a partner. And another caller said the manufacturing jobs are greatly needed especially now in the face of huge job losses in the area resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Last year, ScaleFactor made the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce’s A-List of Hottest Startups in the mid-sized category.

On Tuesday, ScaleFactor announced plans to shut down after raising $103 million from investors – including $90 million in 2019. Its investors included Coatue Management, Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan, Broadhaven Ventures, Firebrand Ventures, Vulcan, Stripes Group, and NextPlay Capital.

The company, founded by Kurt Rathmann, CEO and founder, and Corey Bach, CFO and founder, graduated from the Techstars Austin incubator in 2017.

It’s the biggest shut down of an Austin-based startup that has raised more than $100 million since Calxeda, an Austin Technology Incubator company, shut down in December of 2013. Calxeda, with 125 employees, had raised more than $100 million since its inception in 2008. The company ran out of money while trying to create a new type of low-power computer chip.

ScaleFactor, founded in 2014, made business management software that automates bookkeeping for small to mid-sized businesses in the U.S.

Rathmann made the announcement to the company’s employees Tuesday afternoon, according to a post on the company’s website. ScaleFactor had 100 employees, after laying off 40 employees in February, according to a story in Forbes.

“Today, we announced that ScaleFactor is suspending a majority of its operations on August 28^th,” Rathmann said. “To that end, we will be saying goodbye to half of our team members today and asking the remainder of the team to help us in finding our current customers a good home.”

Employees will be offered a minimum of 12 weeks of severance pay and ScaleFactor will pay for COBRA health insurance payments through the end of the year. The company also plans to provide recruiting support and outplacement services to laid-off employees. It is also letting employees keep their computers and equipment.

ScaleFactor plans to continue to support its customers and then transition them to other services in July and August.

“Rathmann says the pandemic wiped out almost half of ScaleFactor’s sales; the startup had reached $7 million in annual recurring revenue at the end of 2019,” according to the Forbes story. But the story also says the company may have been in trouble before the Pandemic struck when it changed its business model and laid off 40 employees in February.

Canva, an Australian online graphic design platform, announced Tuesday that it is opening an office in Austin and investing in its U.S. operations.

The office will provide support for Canva’s enterprise clients and nonprofit organizations.

Canva, based in Sydney, Australia, also announced it has raised a new $60 million round of funding, giving the company a new valuation of $6 billion, up from a previous $3.2 billion valuation.

Despite the economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company continues to see a significant increase in user activity, Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht said in a news release.

“Canva’s accelerated growth is indicative of the “new normal”, as more teams realize the need for a more scalable, more collaborative, more affordable and more user-friendly design platform,” Obrecht said.

Canva attributes the doubling in the valuation to its strong growth as a workplace collaboration platform. It has seen an increase in users as the world shifts online resulting from the global Pandemic. More than 30 million people use Canva every month to design presentations, marketing materials, social media content, videos, and more. That equates to more than 80 designs per second and more than 3 billion designs created since Canva launched in 2012.

Canva has seen a 50 percent increase since the start of COVID-19. As a result, the company is rolling out some new workplace collaboration features aimed at teams including Canva’s Real-time Collaboration, Canva Brainstorms, Canva Talking Presentations, and Canva for Desktop.

Canva is also eyeing acquisitions to further its international growth.

 “We’re open to investment opportunities in the media and editing space as we continue on our mission to provide a comprehensive and valuable product,” Canva Cofounder Obrecht said in a news release. “Ultimately, we want Canva to be the go-to platform for all your design needs, so we’ll continue to monitor and evaluate acquisition opportunities.”

John Eitel, vice president of sales at Canva, is leading the US office.

“In light of COVID-19, we are mostly working remotely right now, but long term plan is to have an office where we can all work together,” Eitel said in an email response to questions.

” We plan to triple our current team of 20 this year, building out our sales and marketing functions for the Enterprise, Education, and Partnerships teams, plus support across Finance, HR and Legal,” he said.

Canva picked Austin for its U.S. office because the city is ” an exciting tech hub that offers a wealth of local talent while enabling us to support customers across several US time zones,” Eitel said. “We’re also in great company here, with an array of large enterprises and technology innovators, that offer excellent partnership opportunities. “

“We’re building a new US home where everyone loves coming to work, and Austin is an exciting setting that will help us achieve this,” he said.

Canva for Enterprise: Elevate 2020

Canva for Enterprise will hold its first major virtual conference on July 29, 2020, to kick-off Canva Elevate 2020 – a virtual event series where experts will discuss the future of brand consistency and design collaboration. 
Canva CEO and Co-Founder, Melanie Perkins, will expand on Canva for Enterprise’s plans for the US and beyond, followed by talks from leading marketers from HubSpot, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and others. 
Sessions will take place from 1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Central time and anyone can register for free here.

“We recommend the conference for those interested in hearing more about Canva for Enterprise’s strategy and the latest developments within the wider branding space,” Eitel said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with the latest information.

As Austin quickly becomes a hotspot for the spread of the COVID-19 virus, city leaders took action Monday to require people to wear face masks.

Effective at midnight on Monday, all businesses must require their employees, customers, and vendors to wear masks in Austin, according to the latest order from Mayor Steve Adler.

Last week, Mayor Adler warned businesses to prepare their safety plans and asked that masks be used by employees, customers, and vendors. His latest order makes face masks mandatory.

And Monday afternoon, the Opening Central Texas for Business Task Force, along with the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce debuted a new campaign “Austin, Let’s Be a City of Us” to encourage everyone to wear a face mask to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Austin Chamber President and CEO Laura Huffman, Mayor Adler, and Roy Spence, with Spence Communications, introduced the campaign during a press conference held online on Zoom.

“I love thinking of our city as a city of us because that’s so true,” Mayor Adler said.

This city’s residents were “willing to act to selflessly” in the common good and that helped prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the early stages but now cases are on the rise, and it’s time to buckle down again, Mayor Adler said.

“This is gut-check time,” Mayor Adler said.  “Are we as a community willing to step out and help one another?”

Cases of COVID-19 are skyrocketing and hospitalizations are increasing in Texas and Central Texas is seeing a big uptick.

On Monday, Texas has 114,881 cases of people testing positive for Coronavirus and 2,192 deaths. An estimated, 69,190 people have recovered from the disease in Texas.

Austin and Travis County have 6,399 people who have tested positive for COVID-19, up 1,053 cases from Friday, resulting in 112 lives lost, according to Adler. There are 181 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Austin area, with 86 in the ICU and 32 on ventilators.

The City of US campaign, created by Spence, CEO of Spence Communications, encourages Austinites to wear a face mask to protect against another spike in COVID-19. Spence is the creator of the “Don’t Mess With Texas slogan and antilitter campaign. He is also a founder of GSD&M.

“When you go out, wear a mask,” Spence said. “A mask on each of us will be a win for all of us. It will be a win for our small businesses. If we all wear a mask into these retail outlets, that’s one less thing that small business owners and their staff have to worry about.”

Spence said he got inspired to create the campaign when he noticed there is an US in Austin.

“When we are at our best, we are a better us,” he said.

“Local television stations will begin running the public service announcement this week,” according to a news release. The video features the song “Touch the Sky” by Austin-based Grammy-nominated group Black Pumas.  

The Chamber has prepared a free digital toolkit for businesses at AustinCityofUs.com.

“We are still very much in the middle of this virus,” Adler said. “If our city is going to avoid pulling back on the economy or having our hospitals overwhelmed, we have to do something.”

This campaign empowers the community to do something to help each other and to help the economy, he said.

“Yes, we’ve relaxed too much,” Adler said. “Too many people have believed we are beyond this crisis, but we are in the middle of this. “

This is actually a boots on the ground campaign, Huffman said. Each business in Austin needs to be a part of this campaign, she said.

The Austin Emergency Supply Foundation is working to get free masks to small businesses, she said.

“If there is a US in Austin there is also a US in business, and that’s what we’re leaning into today,” Huffman said.

“When we have the power of us, there is no stopping us on what we can do together,” Spence said. “We are a city of goodness.”

On Juneteenth, Notley, a philanthropic organization, published an open letter on racial justice from the Austin tech community.

Some of the locally-based tech companies signing the letter include Silicon Labs, WP Engine, Data.World, SailPoint, and others.

“The purpose of the letter is to commit Austin’s tech community to action against racism,” according to a news release. “Notley’s hope is that this gives the tech community concrete steps they can take in the fight against structural bias and racism in the workplace.”

In Texas, Juneteenth has been a state holiday since 1980. And this year, many tech startups like Data.World declared the date, June 19^th, as a company holiday. Other larger tech companies like Tesla also made that declaration. And U.S. Senators enter a bill on Friday to declare Juneteenth a national holiday, according to NBC News.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It dates back to 1865 when the Union soldiers landed in Galveston with news that the war had ended and enslaved were now free. That news came nearly two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

The City of Austin allowed artists to paint Congress Avenue with the statement “Black Austin Matters” earlier this week. Artists also painted “Black Artists Matter” on the street on Austin’s East Side.

Earlier this month, thousands rallied at Huston-Tillotson University in East Austin to demand an end to racism and to condemn police violence, according to a KUT story. The rally occurred after more than a week of protests in Austin.

The Notley letter outlines steps tech leaders can take to advance racial justice. The companies signing the letter pledge to move beyond words and to take action. The actions include:

• Listening to our Black employees and investing time and money to support them in ways they request support
• Requiring all recruiters to complete training on identifying and removing bias from the hiring process
• Providing all employees with regular opportunities to engage in racial justice education and action
• Providing all employees with as much paid time off as they need to exercise their voting rights on Election Day each year
• Partnering with local nonprofits and universities to build a pipeline of future Black hires
• Identifying and working with Black-owned businesses to supply our vendor needs and build wealth in the Black community
• Financially supporting organizations that address racial disparities in the criminal justice system
• Financially supporting organizations that address voter suppression in Texas

A proposed $1 billion Tesla Gigafactory in Austin is coming closer to reality.

Next Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court will consider offering a ten-year 80 percent property tax abatement worth an estimated $14.65 million as an incentive to have the electric vehicle manufacturing plant locate in Austin.

An item on the agenda lists the Travis County Economic Development Performance Agreement, proposed with the Colorado River Project, with Tesla, detailing the scope of the project being considered.

The electric vehicle manufacturing plant will have one or more product lines totaling four to five million square feet resulting in a $1 billion investment in new construction and business personal property, according to the document.

Tesla plans to begin construction next month pending all required approvals, according to its application for a tax abatement with the Del Valle Independent School District, filed with the Texas Comptrollers Office in May, and amended this week. Construction is expected to take two to three years. Tesla is seeking additional incentives from the Del Valle Independent School District.

Tesla’s Gigafactory will create 5,000 new jobs with about 65 percent in the construction industry paying $15 an hour. The plant’s jobs will have an average annual salary of $47,147 with full benefits, according to the filing with the Texas County Commissioners. But in its filing with the Del Valle ISD, Tesla reports the jobs will pay an average annual wage of $74,050.

The plant is proposed to be located on 2,100 acres at SH 130 and Harold Green Road. It’s currently a sand and gravel site owned by Martin Marietta. It houses a concrete batch plant that serves local construction projects. That plant would operate for a while and then be relocated, according to Tesla’s application. Tesla plans to pay $5.3 million for the various parcels of land, which are under contract, according to its filing with the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

Tesla’s plant is expected to have a ripple effect beyond the plant itself creating an additional 4,000 new non-Tesla jobs and more than $425 million in new annual wages above and beyond Tesla employee wages, according to the economic impact report prepared for the Travis County Commissioners.

The project comes at a much-needed time for Austin. The COVID-19 Pandemic has resulted in the city’s unemployment rate skyrocketing from 2.2 percent in April 2019 to 12.4 percent in April 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The approval of state and local incentives is essential for Texas to be considered for the project, according to Tesla’s application. Texas has high property and personal taxes compared to other states and the incentives would help to level the playing field between Texas and other states vying for the project, according to Tesla. The current focus for Tesla is on Texas and Oklahoma, but the Texas site meets all of Tesla’s needs, pending the approval of incentives, according to Tesla’s application with the Texas Comptroller.

Tesla, which is based in Palo Alto, California, already has a factory in Fremont, California, and Gigafactories in Nevada and New York and a Gigafactory in Shanghai, China with plans for a new one in Berlin, Germany.

Correction: Tesla has $5.3 million of land parcels under contract.