TikTok Inks Major Lease in Austin

300 Colorado

Cousins Properties has secured a new tenant for one of its downtown Austin office towers. Social media giant TikTok Inc. has signed a more than 125,000-square-foot sublease at 300 Colorado, a 368,798-square-foot, 32-story high-rise in the city’s CBD, the Austin Business Journal first reported. The social media company will occupy floors 27 through 32.

The 2021-built property, on less than 1 acre at 300 Colorado St., features floorplates between 21,256 and 22,917 square feet along with a fitness center equipped with locker rooms, a lounge with a bar and a 3,400-square-foot conference center. The high-rise includes a 10,000-square-foot retail component on the first two floors as well as 14 levels of parking with a ratio of 2.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet.

The California-based tenant will take up a portion of the space originally leased to Parsley Energy Inc., which was later acquired by Pioneer Natural Resources Co., resulting in the closure of the Austin office.

The latter is among Cousins’ top five office tenants occupying 359,660 square feet of space across two properties in a single market, with a weighted average remaining lease term of about 9.7 years, according to a recent Earnings Release.

The Cousins’ leading tenant roster also includes Amazon and Meta Platforms (formerly known as Facebook). Once complete, the e-commerce giant will occupy Cousins’ 332,865-square-foot office project, which is currently underway in Austin’s The Domain submarket.

The office sector within Austin’s CBD

Cousins Properties closed last year by finalizing two office transactions in downtown Austin. The real estate investment trust sold 816 Congress, a LEED Platinum certified office tower totaling 435,000 square feet, for $174 million. The Atlanta-based company also acquired the full ownership stake in 300 Colorado, shelling out nearly $163 million to Riverside Resources and Ironwood Real Estate for their 50 percent interest in the high-rise.

Based on a recent AQUILA Commercial Report, the submarket closed last year with Meta Platforms inking a 589,000-square-foot lease at Sixth and Guadalupe, representing the second-largest office lease in downtown Austin. Despite the record-setting lease, office vacancy dropped 110 basis points quarter-over-quarter, reaching 19.7 percent, well above the city’s average (14.7 percent).