Background
In 2019, Madison Marquette purchased Pennybacker Commons, known at the time as The Millenium. Prior to 2019, The Millennium was a single-tenant occupied building by National Instruments (NI).
Madison Marquette had an existing relationship with AQUILA, and after an interview process, we were hired to rebrand, lease, and manage the building.
Challenges
The management assignment came with many challenges to navigate. Repositioning the asset from a single-tenant building to a multi-tenant building required multiple experienced teams to tackle the challenges ahead.
Single-tenant buildings are oftentimes designed and managed differently than multi-tenant buildings. In this case, there was considerable deferred maintenance to correct. The first push of necessary capital improvement projects along these lines included putting a new roof on the building, working on the cooling tower, and replacing the air handling units to make the building more comfortable for multiple tenants.
When Madison Marquette purchased the building, it was comparatively sparse. Our team identified the need to add amenities in order to make the building more competitive in its submarket.
AQUILA’s project management team also enhanced the rooftop patio on the fifth floor with a custom-designed and engineered steel shade structure to go along with new patio furniture.
This same furniture package was also accompanied by new landscaping that we worked to include as part of improvements to the first-floor exterior patio.
Our project management team remodeled the main lobby on the second floor, enhanced the entryway with new tile and modern finishes, remodeled an outdated set of restrooms on the main floor, built out two spec suites in the building, and helped to design and construct a common area conference room.
Other improvements included:
- Exterior, garage, and column painting
- New monument signs
- Addition of electric vehicle charging stations
- Waterproofing of windows
Results
In 2019, when Madison Marquette purchased the property, the building was 69% leased. In early 2020, when COVID-19 hit and after the fifth-floor tenant completely went dark, the building dropped down to 51% leased. After executing a few leases including a full-floor tenant to backfill the fifth floor in late 2021, the building is now nearly 75% occupied as of this writing.
AQUILA’s property management, project management, and leasing teams worked together on behalf of our client to completely revamp and reposition the building. Pennybacker Commons was Madison Marquette’s first venture into the Austin market and has been a great success story during a difficult time in the suburban office commercial real estate market.
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