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Saronic breaks ground on $3B Brownsville shipyard

Port Alpha at the Port of Brownsville is planned for more than $3 billion in private investment, up to 10,000 direct jobs and an initial 150,000 gross tons a year of shipbuilding capacity.

Motion Media News Staff

Oct 2, 2026

3 minutes

Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stand at microphones outdoors.

Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense / 250305-D-FN350-1255 (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons (source)

Saronic Technologies held a groundbreaking Wednesday, Sept. 30, for Port Alpha, a new shipyard at the Port of Brownsville that the company said will take more than $3 billion in private capital, according to a Saronic statement carried by PR Newswire.

The yard sits on 835 acres and can grow to almost 4,400 acres under an expansion option, Saronic said. The company said the plant will handle both autonomous and crewed ships, could support as many as 10,000 direct jobs and is projected to deliver about $264.5 billion in economic impact for Texas. The Texas governor's office and Naval News reported those same company figures.

Ceremony and capacity plans

Vice President J.D. Vance and Gov. Greg Abbott attended and spoke at the event, Saronic and the governor's office said. Abbott said the project "will create 10,000 jobs and put hundreds of millions of dollars in annual paychecks into the hands of Texans," and that the ships "will be built in Brownsville by American workers for the defense of the United States."

Saronic Co-Founder and CEO Dino Mavrookas said the facility is "designed from the ground up to produce both autonomous and manned vessels at scale, with modularity and throughput shaping the shipyard's architecture."

When it opens, Port Alpha is meant to start at 150,000 gross tons of annual output — which Saronic said would more than double today's U.S. commercial shipbuilding capacity — with room to grow past 2 million gross tons. Early configuration would support ships up to 850 feet; later expansion could take hulls longer than 1,200 feet, the company said.

First phase and Navy work

Phase one is planned around roughly 1.2 million square feet under roof inside a 2.5-million-square-foot working area, eight to 10 production buildings, over 2,500 feet of quay on deep water, two to four final assembly berths and 75,000 tonnes of steel processing a year, Saronic said. JE Dunn | Alberici Joint Venture was chosen to construct that phase.

Saronic said early work will include Landing Craft Utility boats for the U.S. Navy under a contract the company recently won, along with other autonomous, autonomy-ready and crewed ships. It said it is partnering with the state, Cameron County and area schools on training and apprenticeships, citing a national shortage of about 250,000 skilled shipyard workers over the next decade.

What's next

Saronic described a staged ramp that begins with limited production capacity so it can prove its manufacturing methods and hire a local workforce. Naval News reported the company cast Port Alpha as part of rebuilding U.S. maritime industrial capacity for defense and commercial customers. The company's release did not set a date for full operations beyond the phased build plan.