Amazon Adds 104 KSF to Austin Lease

The Domain complex under construction. Image courtesy of Google Maps

Amazon is further expanding its tech hub in Austin, Texas, having signed for an additional 104,000 square feet at the Domain 10 office tower being developed by Cousins Properties. The deal expands Amazon’s existing lease of 145,000 square feet, signed earlier this year, bringing the e-commerce giant’s total commitment at the future property to 249,000 square feet.

The 15-story project located at 11815 Alterra Parkway is now 98 percent leased and is slated for delivery in the third quarter of 2020. Measuring 300,000 square feet in total, the building will form part of The Domain, a mixed-use urban complex within Austin’s high-tech corridor. Dallas-based Tier REIT, which Cousins acquired in June, is developing the project with Endeavor Group.

Amazon is said to already occupy about 250,000 square feet in the Domain 7 and 8 towers, where it had some 1,000 workers as of March. The news comes shortly after Amazon’s announcement that it will expand its Chicago Tech Hub by 70,000 square feet, creating 400 new jobs to fill the downtown office.

More than 1,400 tech workers

Cousin Properties announced the Austin lease expansion without providing further details about Amazon’s plans, confirming an earlier report of the deal by Austin Business Journal. Amazon recently told the business news outlet that it plans to create more than 1,400 jobs at the project, augmenting an earlier pledge of 800 jobs.

Insurance holdings company Citizens Inc. is the only other tenant of Domain 10, having leased 35,000 square feet. Other tech firms in the larger complex include Facebook, which has leased all 17 floors of the upcoming Domain 12 building, and home rental company Vrbo, which recently opened its headquarters in the 16-story Domain 11.

Colin Connolly, president & CEO of Cousins Properties, noted in a statement that the company’s 1.9 million-square-foot Domain portfolio is currently leased almost in its entirety.

Seattle-based Amazon opened its eighteenth North American Tech Hub in Houston in July. As the second-largest employer in the U.S., the company has a real estate footprint measuring 288 million square feet of offices, warehouses, data centers and retail stores globally.