Brandywine Sells 2 in Austin for $108M

November 19, 2024

Office Austin Featured InvestmentMoreNews Southwest

The city snapped up the office assets.

Aerial shot of two buildings within the Barton Skyway office park in Austin, texas. — Brandywine Realty Trust still owns one of the four buildings in the Barton Skyway office park in Southwest Austin. *Image by Scott Mason Photography, courtesy of Brandywine Realty Trust*

The city of Austin, Texas, has acquired One and Two Barton Skyway, two office buildings totaling about 386,000 square feet in Southwest Austin. Brandywine Realty Trust sold the assets for $107.6 million, or $275 per square foot. The buyer expects to spend an additional $3 million on renovations and $9 million on design services.

The buildings will serve as consolidated public safety headquarters for Austin Police, Austin Fire and the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, currently scattered across the city.

This new location will generate significant cost savings and increased efficiencies, said Mayor Kirk Watson in prepared remarks. Building a new comparable facility would have cost approximately $234 million, or $600 per square foot, more than double the price of buying the existing assets, according to the city.

Located at 1501 and 1601 S. MoPac Expressway and completed in 1999 and 2000, both Class A buildings stand four stories tall and encompass roughly 195,000 square feet each. Also, both have 50,000-square-foot floorplates. The campus the buildings are in, located near Zilker Park, includes two five-level parking garages, each with more than 780 parking spaces.

The Barton Skyway office park, situated on 35 acres, comprises four buildings. Brandywine still owns Four Barton Skyway, which is currently 94 percent leased.

Brandywine’s strategy

The sale of the two buildings is consistent with the REIT’s capital recycling and portfolio management objectives, Jerry Sweeney, president & CEO, stated in prepared remarks.

Sweeney also noted the REIT’s commitment to Austin. He cited the company’s development of 405 Colorado, a 25-story Class A office building, and Uptown ATX, a 66-acre master-planned development that’s a cornerstone of Austin’s emerging second downtown. Brandywine completed Uptown ATX’s One Uptown, a 381,739-square-foot, 14-story, Class A office building, in January. The mixed-use campus will have 3.2 million square feet of office, retail and residential space upon buildout.

Closer to home, Brandywine recently signed a 119,000-square-foot lease at 250 Radnor St., a life science and office building in Radnor, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb. That 168,000-square-foot building is now fully leased.

Brandywine’s portfolio, which is concentrated in the Philadelphia and Austin markets, comprised 147 properties and 21.1 million square feet as of Sept. 30.