Tag: leander

St. John Properties announces new office project north of Austin

Posted on by Mia Goulart

St. John Properties, Inc. plans to break ground early next spring on a 120,000-square-foot project in Leander that will become the suburban community’s first Class-A office building and the first commercial component of the 116-acre urban, mixed-use Northline development 30 miles from Austin.

The four-story building is designed to earn LEED certification and will offer high-quality finishes, floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as 15,500 square feet of ground floor retail and restaurant space. The floorplates will be able to accommodate tenants that are diverse in size and services. Located at 1157 Main St., the project is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2025. Perennially listed among the fastest growing cities in the nation, Leander has experienced tremendous residential growth over the last decade, fueling demand for commercial space among retailers and other businesses.

Founded in 1971, St. John Properties is one of the nation’s largest and most successful privately held commercial real estate firms with assets of more than $5 billion across 11 states. The Baltimore-based developer opened a Texas regional office in Austin in 2022.

St. John Properties specializes in multi-tenant buildings designed to serve tenants small to large such as law firms, tech companies and business consultants. Suites offered in the new Northline building will start at 2,000 square feet.

The company frequently builds in suburban areas to be near the residences of business owners, and the Northline project will match the company’s approach to construct office buildings in a walkable, mixed use suburban development.

The start of construction on the new office building will mark a major milestone for Northline, Leander’s new downtown district is slated to include more than five million square feet of office, retail, residential, hotel and civic space as well as a signature park.

Residents will begin moving into Northline’s first apartments and townhomes later this year.

The project also serves as a breakthrough for Leander, which has prioritized attracting more employers and retailers to the community in order to diversify its tax base and provide more employment opportunities to residents closer to home.

Joint venture equity and construction financing arranged for shallow-bay industrial development in North Austin

Posted on by Mia Goulart

JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has arranged the equity and debt placement for Hero Way West, a to-be-built, three building business park totaling 227,200 square feet of Class A, shallow-bay product located in Leander, Texas.

JLL represented the developer, Freehill Development Company, in securing both the joint venture equity as well as the floating-rate construction loan for the project. 

Hero Way West will be designed to cater to small and regional businesses throughout Central Texas and provide best-in-class shallow-bay warehouse space for tenants as small as 8,000 square feet. Situated on 16.8 acres, the development will offer high visibility showroom space along Hero Way with dock-high rear loading, 28-foot clear heights and ample parking. A uniquely attractive combination, further evidenced by the project’s 24,500-square-foot prelease.

The project is located less than a half mile from U.S. Highway 183 in the heart of Leander, Texas, the fastest growing municipality within the Austin MSA over the last decade and the second fastest growing large city in America between 2020-2021 (U.S. Census). Additionally, the property is just 11.5 miles from Interstate 35 and the rapidly growing IH-35 Corridor, which stretches from Mexico to San Antonio-Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and on to the Northern U.S.

The JLL Capital Markets team was led by Senior Director Charlie Strauss, Director Tom Weber, Senior Managing Director Trent Agnew and Director Josh Villarreal for the joint venture equity placement.  Managing Directors Michael Johnson and Chris McColpin led the JLL Capital Markets team for the placement of construction financing.