The Domain Thrives in Austin

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Domain 11 in Austin

Having just preleased 98 percent of the building’s space, TIER REIT Inc., of Dallas, will now be moving forward with Domain 11, a 324,000-square-foot, 16-story office building in The Domain, a live-work-play community in northwest Austin, Texas, TIER announced last Friday. The tower’s tenant is HomeAway, an Expedia subsidiary that competes with AirBnB.

Construction on the Gensler-designed building is set to begin shortly, with delivery scheduled for late next year.

“Following the success of our Domain 8 development project, which recently delivered at over 98 percent leased, we are excited to commence development on the first of our wholly-owned land parcels at The Domain,” Scott Fordham, president & CEO of TIER REIT, said in a prepared statement.

Fordham added that TIER also recently completed pre-development work at Domain 12, a 306,000-square-foot office tower that is adjacent to Domain 11.

Austin’s “second downtown”

Touted as Austin’s “second downtown,” The Domain is a master-planned, mixed-use development in northwest Austin, built on 303 acres that had been an IBM corporate campus. The project got its start in 2007, with an initial phase centered on a retail center owned and managed by Simon Property Group.

Besides Domain 11, TIER’s holdings at The Domain include 100 percent ownership of four fully leased office buildings totaling 669,000 square feet, 50 percent ownership of one 291,000-square-foot office building that delivered earlier this year (Domain 8), and 15 acres of wholly owned, fully entitled land that can accommodate up to about 1 million square feet of office space.

The REIT stepped into The Domain in a big way in mid-2015, when it purchased two Class A buildings there, along with a partnership interest in two other office properties and 24 acres for future development.