Office Construction in Austin Picks Up Steam

With two major office towers already underway in downtown Austin, two of the area’s biggest developers are planning to build two more. Trammell Crow Company and their partners are heading up the Block 23 Green Water Treatment Plant, and Schlosser Development Corporation is moving forward with its Shoal Creek Walk project.

Although the plans for the commercial portion of Block 23 has been kept under wraps, the multifamily residential portion is nearing completion after having been under construction for several months. The Austin Utility Location & Coordination Committee will consider applications for two tower crane permits to be erected on the office tower site by the project’s general contractors, The Beck Group. Block 23 is projected to have 492,333 square feet of office space and 6,806 square feet for retail.

The area of West Second and Nueces streets, which is bordered by San Antonio and Lamar Streets, is one of the nation’s most intensely developed sites. Numerous projects are under construction at the site, such as the Seaholm Power LLC, Austin Central Library lot, and Green Water Treatment parcel.

A $100 million, 32-story office building development is being marketed to investors by the CBRE Group. Industry insiders report that Google, Inc. is being pursued as an anchor tenant for the project, which news encouraged Trammell Crow to proceed with their office tower portion.

The Schlosser Development Corporation is also moving ahead with Shoal Creek Walk, their proposed office tower,. The site, located at 635 W. Sixth St., is currently a defunct parking lot near the flagship Whole Foods Market downtown. Although construction activity at the site has yet to commence, the lot has been closed to public access for the past several weeks. This 2-building, $52 million development is projected to include 17 floors of office space with ground-level retail. Although investors are increasingly interested in office space located in downtown Austin, Schlosser has yet to begin pre-leasing office space. Shoal Creek Walk will have 430,417 square feet of office space and 44,427 feet of retail.

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