The Background
Tech Center Southwest is a 37,800-square-foot flex/lab project located on Southwest Parkway in Austin, Texas. It is a unique building in that it’s the only product of its kind and class in the area. In 2015, the ownership became frustrated when their leasing firm had yet to produce any tours in six months for a space that had sat vacant for almost two years.
The Challenge
In addition to being a rare product type in the market, the 21,000 square feet space was difficult to split, and at the time, most tenants in the market for flex space were looking for 10,000 to 12,000 square feet. Additionally, the building’s location in the Southwest submarket
Lastly, space was a bit tired and it took vision to see what it could become. It needed some work, but the local owner was not interested in spending the money to whitebox the space.
The Solution
With AQUILA at the helm, new photos were taken and professional new marketing materials were crafted. We reintroduced the opportunity to the market and the brokerage community through a strategic email marketing campaign.
Additionally, we worked with architects to understand how the space might be demised and what the cost for such a move would be. Due to a tricky electrical set-up, it would be quite costly to demise; however, working with our in-house project management team and understanding these factors ahead of time, and presenting them to ownership allowed us to take the space to market as divisible and generate interest from a new crop of tenants looking in the 10,000-to-12,000-square-foot range.
The Results
After no tour activity over the past six months, AQUILA generated 10+ tours in the weeks following taking on the listing, one of which was YETI Coolers, a prominent Austin-based company, and nationally-known brand.
Within 75 days of taking on the listing, AQUILA had signed a five-year lease with YETI to take the entire space and a handful of backup offers. With that lease signed, AQUILA was able to compel an early renewal from ISE Labs, which had 16,000 square feet next door, bringing the project to 100% leased for three years.
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