First Phase of Austin Industrial Park Underway

Lockhart 130 Building 1. Image courtesy of Titan Development

Titan Development is continuing its development of Building 1 of the Lockhart 130 Industrial Park, a 167,794-square-foot Class A industrial building. The project is the first installation in the Lockhart 130 Industrial Park, a four-building, master-planned industrial park located in between Texas State Highway 130 and FM 2720 in Lockhart, Texas. Construction of Building 1 had started in the third quarter of 2022 and is expected for completion in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Building 1 of the Lockhart 130 industrial park is geared primarily towards tenants involved in manufacturing, processing, logistics and distribution. The facility is being built with 41,949-square-foot floor plates, and includes 36 dock doors with 32-foot clear heights, a 60-foot speed bay, a 185-foot deep truck court, an ESFR sprinkler system and 193 parking spaces. Aquila will market the finished facility to tenants.

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At full build-out, Lockhart 130 will feature 643,256 square feet of space built over 45.1 acres. Situated along Texas State Highway 130, the development will have quick trucking access to metro Austin, 34 miles to the north, with San Antonio, Houston and Dallas all within a 4-hour drive. In the neighboring town of Uhland, Chem-Energy Corporation is constructing a $1 billion solar panel and batter manufacturing facility, and a 3,173-acre mixed-use community is being built to the southwest.

Titan Development Senior Vice President Joe Iannacone detailed the strength of the property’s location further, telling Commercial Property Executive, “Demand for warehouse and manufacturing space is growing at an immense pace in central and South Texas, and the Austin area is making a name as one of the nation’s top emerging industrial hubs. Manufacturers like Samsung, Tesla and Chem-Energy Corporation are joining the market and, at the same time, the workforce remains strong with a growing number of residents choosing to live in and around Austin.”

Additionally, the park will be within 40 miles of some of the state’s largest employers, in addition to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Austin’s industrial growth continues

Bolstered by the city’s ever-growing population and its ongoing transformation into a national semiconductor manufacturing hub, logistics space in the capital of the Lone Star State has seen no shortage of demand, while supply struggles to keep up. According to data from a third quarter 2022 report from JLL, the city has a 4.2 percent vacancy rate, with 3.28 million square feet net absorbed year-to-date.

The city’s pipeline of 12.3 million square feet under construction has helped to alleviate constraints somewhat, as the 1.4 million square feet of space delivered through the quarter has been 85 percent pre-leased, the same data shows. Furthermore, asking rents continue to climb, with both direct and sublease rents increasing to over $10 per square foot.

For its part, Titan Development has continued to expand its development footprint throughout the city, adding additional buildings to its numerous industrial parks. In April, the firm had broken ground on a 297,057-square-foot fifth addition to its NorthPark35 Industrial Park. One month prior, the developer had completed the fourth building in its Titan Innovation Business Park, the first part of its second phase of the development.