The ATX Tower, under construction in Austin, will offer more than 100,000 square feet of office space that will be ready in late 2024. The city already has a glut of commercial real estate. AUSTIN — Shooting up from the downtown skyline is a gleaming, 66-story glass behemoth, a place “where Fortune 500 companies, high-rise residents and premier retailers come together to create a community of their own,” as sleek marketing brochures put it.
“It’s just so striking that even after the economy has cooled off … all I see are cranes everywhere around me,” said Julia Coronado, founder of MacroPolicy Perspectives and a longtime Austin resident. “There are ‘for lease’ signs on these brand new, beautiful buildings. Who is going to go there? I don’t know.”Highpoint 2222, a 1.1 million square footConstruction for new offices is booming.
Seth Johnston, senior vice president and market leader of Lincoln Property Company, said timing is on the industry’s side. The global developer is behind multiple Austin projects including Sixth and Guadalupe, which got rolling when financing was cheap. Now LPC and its peers will have the newest offerings with the sleekest amenities, Johnston said. And there won’t be fresh competition coming up behind them, since financing for new projects has almost entirely dried up.
Still, only the biggest, richest firms can afford to lease huge offices they don’t use. And empty towers don’t do much to liven up an area or attract new customers. Jeff Graves, research director at Cushman & Wakefield, can look out the window at the changing skyline. From his office, he pointed to a luxe new building right across the street from an abandoned, rat-infested government building that is slated for demolition. Turning a little, he gestured toJust on the other side of Graves’s window, a construction crew was practically dangling out the side of a brand new office tower.