Starbase, the SpaceX company town turned incorporated city on the southern tip of Texas, is moving ahead with plans for a $12 million civic building that would finally give it a permanent City Hall and police station. The 11,500-square-foot structure is slated for 1 Rocket Road, and state paperwork shows construction could begin next month.
SpaceX is listed as the owner of the proposed building, according to a report from rgvbusinessjournal.com, which cited a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Per that filing, the building would house Starbase City Hall along with a police station that includes limited detention rooms and dispatch operations. Construction is scheduled to begin December 1, with completion projected for December 31, 2027.
The plans mark a significant step for a city that barely existed eighteen months ago. Voters created Starbase in May 2025, according to valleycentral.com, carving a new municipality out of SpaceX's launch-site footprint near Boca Chica. City Administrator Kent Myers said at the time that Starbase planned to eventually build its own city hall, the station's report notes, but for now the young city has been operating out of borrowed space.
A Temporary Home Inside a SpaceX Building
On May 28, Starbase's City Commission formally designated 48491 State Highway 4 as its temporary City Hall, according to a Starbase City Commission meeting document. That same filing set regular commission meetings for the third Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m., though it noted the meeting location remains subject to change. Before that, the city had been leaning on SpaceX directly for meeting space.
Shortly after incorporation, the City Commission approved a licensing agreement letting Starbase use a SpaceX building and company equipment for its public meetings, the same valleycentral.com report states. SpaceX agreed to make that building available for $100 a month, and commissioners approved the arrangement unanimously on a 3-0 vote. The arrangement reflects just how entangled Starbase's early civic life has been with the company that spawned it.
Standing Up a Police Department From Scratch
Starbase's police department has its own origin story tied to local government limits. The city initially tried to contract with Cameron County for dedicated patrol deputies, but the deal collapsed after the county struggled to fill the positions, according to the same valleycentral.com account — prompting Starbase to build its own force instead. The city began soliciting applications for two police sergeants and six officers in August, drawing roughly 30 to 40 applicants for each tier of positions.
The push to build out municipal services has coincided with rapid physical growth. Since incorporating, Starbase had issued nearly 150 building permits by October 2025, per the same rgvbusinessjournal.com reporting cited earlier — including more than 130 residential permits and 587 residential inspections completed over a four-month stretch, with a pass rate near 83%. Commercial activity has grown too, with 16 commercial permits and 39 commercial inspections posting an 89% pass rate in that same window, while public records cited in the report showed the city's population surpassing 500 people.
Part of a Broader Building Boom
The proposed city hall isn't Starbase's only large-scale project moving through state filings. In June 2025, state records showed a $22 million community building filed for new construction in the city, the rgvbusinessjournal.com report noted, and in April 2025 a $20 million school project known as Ad Astra Phase I was filed to serve students from infancy through 12th grade. Together, the filings point to a city still assembling the basic infrastructure — schools, meeting halls, and now a seat of government — that most municipalities build up over decades rather than months.
Caution is warranted around the city hall project's timeline and scope. The reported building description and schedule come from a news outlet citing the TDLR filing rather than the filing itself, and the evidence reviewed does not establish how the $12 million project will be financed or confirm that construction has actually started. Questions about final project cost, contractor, and construction status remain open for now.
