The futuristic city of Telosa might be coming to Utah: Billionaire Marc Lore is looking for a home for his new city.

• Author: Alsever, Jennifer

BILLIONAIRE Marc Lore is looking at Utah as a potential home for his new city, Telosa. The state is among a handful that Lore is evaluating based on economic and regulatory state policies, regional taxation, types of industries and workforces, energy, food, water, waste and materials, climate, infrastructure, availability of land, and liveability.

Lore earned his fortunes when he sold his startup Jet. com to Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016. Before that, he sold Diapers.com to Amazon for $545 million in 2010. He'll finance a chunk of the $500 billion projects with his own money by tapping philanthropists, government grants, and private investors and contributing money from his own pocket.

The proposed city of Telosa would include indoor farming, energy-efficient buildings, autonomous electric cars, high-speed transportation, and a new model for land ownership aimed at closing the wealth gap. Lore, a former Walmart executive, calls it "equitism."

Telosa would retain ownership of the land, though anyone could build and sell homes. As the city grows, the land value would ideally also grow over time--tunneled back into the Telosa foundation, investing the proceeds and using earnings to pay for equal access to healthcare, good schools, parks, safe streets, and transportation.

"It's sort of a capitalism, reimagined," Lore says.

THIS IS THE PLACE

Utah kind of has a thing about creating paradise. The state has been home to a long line of groups that sought new community, religious, or economic ideals dating back to Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young in 1845. After traveling through Texas, Northern Mexico, and Oregon, Young zeroed in on Salt Lake City until, in 1847, he led 12,000 pioneers to the valley and famously said, "This is the place."

Young sought a safe home for the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that would be out of reach from the US government--Utah didn't join the union until 1896. There, he assumed, "Mormons" would be free from outside economic and religious influences, says Paul Reeve, University of Utah history professor and chair of Mormon studies.

The pilgrims set up various economic "missions" across the area. There was the iron mission in Cedar City, the cotton mission in St. George, and the lead mission in Las Vegas. Residents had no private property, and everyone lived communally, sharing housing, dining halls, and even wearing unit-ordered clothing and eating the same food.

A few years later...