Starwood Capital JV Lands Austin Office Tenant

The Campus at Arboretum. Image courtesy of AQUILA Commercial

A partnership between Starwood Capital Group and Vanderbilt Partners grew its tenant base with a Spanish multinational company at The Campus at Arboretum, a five-building office park totaling 319,000 square feet in Austin, Texas. Ferrovial Services, a services solutions provider for oil and gas industries as well as transportation infrastructure, agreed to occupy 11,575 square feet of Class A office space.

The office park last traded in mid-2019. The joint venture funded that purchase with a $76.2 million acquisition loan originated by Barclays, according to CommercialEdge data.

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The Campus at Arboretum, located on more than 16 acres at 10415-10431 Morado Circle and 10814 Jollyville Road, came online in phases, between 1986 and 1996. The office park features abundant green space along with outdoor amenities such as picnic areas, barbecue areas, fountains and water features, a volleyball and basketball court as well as a disc golf course.

The Campus at Arboretum also offers a conference center, a fitness facility outfitted with showers and locker rooms, floorplates between 11,575 and 36,487 square feet, along with a parking ratio of 4 spaces per 1,000 square feet.

A team effort

The Campus at Arboretum

AQUILA Commercial represented the landlord, while CBRE worked on behalf of the tenant. The AQUILA Commercial team included Managing Principal Chad Barrett, Senior Vice President Seth Stuart and Vice President Max McDonald, while CBRE’s Executive Vice President Nate Stricklen and Senior Vice President Kelly Woodruff also worked on the deal.

Recently, AQUILA also represented Starwood Capital Group and Vanderbilt Partners in inking a nearly 3,500-square-foot lease at The Campus at Arboretum with hOp Life, a locally based software company. Based on CommercialEdge data, the property’s tenant roster includes Ameriprise Financial, FitzPatrick Insurance Solutions and BMC Software, among others.

Austin’s office sector is booming

According to a recent AQUILA report, office vacancy dropped each quarter of 2021 in the Near Northwest submarket—home to The Campus at Arboretum. The submarket closed 2021 at 12.3 percent vacancy, below the 14.7 percent metro average.

Developer interest is more than apparent across Greater Austin. At the end of 2021, the market was leading the country’s top 50 MSAs for relative office pipeline, with projects underway representing 5.8 percent of its total inventory, closely followed by San Jose (5.7 percent) and Seattle (5.0 percent).

Recently, Inspire Development kicked off the development of a $2 billion mixed-use project in Northwest Austin. Pearson Ranch is expected to include more than 2.5 million square feet of office space.