TRS of Texas Completes HQ With Office Buy

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has completed its Austin, Texas, headquarters with the acquisition of the Bravo Building, a 248,000-square-foot office development. Shorenstein Properties sold the property that is scheduled for completion in mid-2025.

TRS’s campus already includes the Alpha Building, a 210,000-square-foot asset that the public pension plan acquired in December 2021 for an estimated $138.1 million. At the time, the purchase price of the new HQ was expected to total about $300 million.

Both buildings are part of a three-phase, 800,000-square-foot office development within the Mueller Business District. The project’s Phase One reached completion last February.

TRS’ previous headquarters was at 1000 Red River Road in downtown Austin, some 3 miles from the Alpha and Bravo buildings. In October 2022, the pension plan sold that asset for $108 million to Alexandria Real Estate Equities, CommercialEdge data shows.

The Bravo Building, up close

The developer broke ground on the six-story project in May 2022. A year later, in September, Wells Fargo Bank provided a $83.8 million construction loan, according to the same source. Project partners include master developer Catellus Development Corp., design firm Page Southerland Page and general contractor Rogers O’Brien Construction.

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When complete, the Bravo Building will feature sustainable design elements including high-efficiency windows and mechanical systems, as well as 40,000-square-foot average floorplates and a 13-foot floor-to-ceiling height. The project also comprises a parking structure for 890 vehicles.

The development is taking shape at 4655 Mueller Blvd., close to a host of dining and retail options. Downtown Austin is less than 4 miles away, while Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is 14 miles southeast. The property is also some 3 miles from Fifth + Tillery, a creative office building that traded last year.

Bravo is the second out of four buildings planned by Shorenstein in the Mueller Business District. The remaining Charlie and Delta, which were not sold to TRS, have recently received construction permits and are expected to provide around 330,000 square feet of class A office and/or laboratory space.

More office space to break ground in Austin

As of February, Austin had 4.3 million square feet of office space under construction, amounting to 4.6 percent of stock, according to a recent CommercialEdge report. And the metro’s inventory is slated for a huge expansion, as the pipeline including planned projects clocked in at a whopping 20.2 percent, the highest in the U.S.

One of the planned projects is the first office building in St. John Properties’ 116-acre Northline mixed-use development. Groundbreaking is slated for this spring.