Capital Metro Transportation Authority completed its purchase of Fifth + Tillery, a three-story, 182,700-square-foot office building in East Austin, Texas, in August 2023. It was one of the largest office-building transactions of the year for Central Texas.
The project has been selected as the winner of the 2024 CoStar Impact Award for sale/acquisition of the year for Austin, as judged by a local team of real estate professionals familiar with the market.
Cap Metro, as the transportation agency is often called, bought Fifth + Tillery from CIM Group to make the building its new headquarters. CIM Group owned the building at 618 Tillery St. in Austin since 2019 when it was still under construction. The original owner tasked Gensler to help convert a large warehouse on the property into a creative office space. Gensler remained on the project after CIM Group came aboard and worked with architects to complete a building using mass timber and a canopy of solar panels to maximize the development’s sustainability elements.
Fifth + Tillery also features a “central rain garden and an airflow and ventilation system to help keep the building’s outdoor areas as cool as possible on warm days.
A portion of Fifth + Tillery was leased to BetterUp, a virtual coaching platform, in 2022. BetterUp has since moved into its space.
About the Project: Fifth + Tillery is considered an adaptive reuse project and features floor plates between 50,000 and 65,000 square feet. All floors can be accessed by outdoor walkways or staircases without having to walk through a main, ground-floor lobby.
What the Judges Said: “This office building is unique in so many ways including the solar panels and all of the amazing outdoor space. The sale to Cap Metro was monumental at a time when there were very few office building sales. This sale was good for the city, great for public transport so they can hire quality employees who will want to office at a quality and well-located office building,” Rachel Coulter, managing director of Stream Realty Partners, said.
They Made It Happen: Jolly Singh, a principal with CIM Group, and Christophe Juul-Nielsen, vice president of investments for CIM Group, oversaw the sale of Fifth + Tillery to Cap Metro.