As Hines kicks off construction on its first heavy-timber building in Austin, Texas, it's already in discussions about renting out the entire space in a sign that the innovative structures remain popular with companies, especially ones in the technology sector.
"We’re going in the ground right now, and we’ve already got tenants talking to us about taking some or, in one case, all of the building," Mark Cover, CEO of Hines' Southwest region, said in an interview at the Urban Land Institute's fall meeting in Chicago. "Where we’ve done it in different cities around the country, it’s been really well received for a certain array of tenants, and that array of tenants is thriving in Austin."
In August, Hines said it would develop T3 Eastside, a three-story building with 92,000 square feet of offices, 9,200 square feet of retail and 15 loft-style residential units. The firm has found success with its T3 projects, which stands for timber, transit and technology, because their large floors, outdoor spaces and sustainable development methods have appealed to technology and creative firms.
Hines is getting closer to starting construction on the 257,610-square-foot T3 building it's been planning in Denver for a while. Last year, the pandemic forced the firm to delay the start of construction on the T3 building in the Colorado city's River North, or RiNo, neighborhood. "We’re active right there right now with a multifamily building, and we’re looking to kick off another T3 building there actually," Cover said.
In Hines' hometown of Houston, the company is wrapping up construction of Texas Tower, a 1.1 million-square-foot office high-rise it's developing with Montreal-based real estate company Ivanhoé Cambridge.
"At this point, Texas Tower will reach its TCO [temporary certificate of occupancy], its official completion, I guess, in another 60 days, and maybe a little bit sooner," Cover said. "We’re around 50% leased."
As for the remaining available space at Texas Tower, Cover said prospects are interested in the high-rise for a variety of reasons.
"We’ve got some great conversations going on with some companies who are looking to either make a significant upgrade in their systems and in their offering to their employees, or coming into the market who haven’t been there before, or in one case coming into the country and looking for an image that goes with that building," he said.