Months before SpaceX’s Aug. 25 announcement in downtown Abbeville, the state’s economic development agency listed something bigger than a launch site among its needs to land the company: a new city in Vermilion Parish.

That is according to state records published Wednesday by the Gulf States Newsroom, the public radio partnership that includes New Orleans’ WWNO. The documents are posted online, and much of what is in them is blacked out.

What the records say

A March 12, 2026 briefing by Louisiana Economic Development, marked highly confidential and code-named ”Project Osprey,” lists “the construction of a new city in Vermilion Parish” among the “anticipated needs to win” what it calls a $100 billion spaceport, the newsroom reported.

The briefing does not say who would run such a city or what role SpaceX would have, and nearly everything beneath that line is redacted, according to the report. A newer version of the briefing from April no longer mentions a new city, and the records do not explain why.

Other details the newsroom found in the records:

  • Size of the first phase: $20 billion or more in investment, perhaps as much as $50 billion, and 3,000 or more jobs, described as “the world’s largest launch site.”
  • The land: the main and backup sites were owned by ExxonMobil and bound by a 100-year lease belonging to the Vermilion Duck Hunting Club.
  • A Texas comparison: an LED official sent around a presentation about Starbase, Texas, SpaceX’s company town, which incorporated as a city in May 2025 after a vote of 212 to 6 and chose a SpaceX vice president to be its mayor. The newsroom noted the Louisiana records do not explicitly say the state meant to copy Starbase.
  • A “whole-of-government” meeting on July 9 listed 27 expected attendees, including the Army Corps of Engineers, LED, the state transportation and coastal agencies, three electric cooperatives (SLEMCO, Jeff Davis Electric and 1803 Electric), One Acadiana, an engineering firm and a law firm.

LED, SpaceX and Gov. Jeff Landry’s office did not answer the newsroom’s questions about the records, it reported.

Why it matters here

A new city would change who governs land near the launch site and who sets the rules there. In Texas, Starbase became its own city with a SpaceX vice president as mayor.

Nothing in the records published so far shows that a city is being formed in Vermilion Parish, and the April briefing dropped the idea from its list without explanation.

What the state says publicly

Louisiana Economic Development’s own public page on the project does not mention a city. It does say that at full buildout, the site is expected to include employee housing, along with five launch complexes with two pads each, propellant storage and a plant to make rocket propellant. LED’s page says construction should begin by the end of 2027, with the first launch targeted as soon as 2029.

The records add to questions already being raised at home. Parish residents and a nonprofit have sued the Police Jury and the parish’s industrial development board, saying the SpaceX tax deal was approved in violation of the Open Meetings Law. [Read our coverage of the lawsuit.](/news/residents-sue-to-void-spacex-tax-deal/)

What we asked the state

On Thursday, the Times asked Louisiana Economic Development what “the construction of a new city in Vermilion Parish” meant, whether it is still being discussed, why it was dropped from the April briefing, and whether residents or the Police Jury would get a public say. We will update this story with LED’s answer.

The records were first reported by Drew Hawkins of WWNO and the Gulf States Newsroom. Their full report is linked in the sources below.

Follow every development on the Times’ [Starbase Watch page](/starbase/).