Aquila and PacVenture Buy Arboretum Office Campus in Austin

A sizable office campus near one of Northwest Austin’s busiest retail hubs changed hands.

A joint venture between Austin-based Aquila Commercial and San Diego-based PacVentures acquired the Campus at Arboretum, a five-building, 318,000-square-foot office complex near the Arboretum shopping center. The Austin Business Journal reported that the firms are stepping into a property that is roughly two-thirds leased, with room to boost occupancy through renovations and targeted leasing.

The property was most recently appraised at $67.7 million, according to the Travis Central Appraisal District. The seller and pricing were not disclosed by Aquila, though the appraisal district records coincide with a Starwood Capital Group and Vanderbilt Partners’ announcement of acquiring the property in 2019. It is not clear if they sold the property before the most recent sale.

JLL’s Ryan Stevens represented the seller in the deal and the buyers were self-represented.

Tenants at the campus include engineering firms Kimley-Horn and Freese and Nichols, along with Cox Automation — a mix that highlights the property’s appeal to professional services users, according to the outlet. The property is about 67 percent leased.

Aquila and PacVentures are planning updates to common areas and amenity spaces, both indoors and out, alongside the addition of spec suites aimed at tenants seeking move-in-ready space. The approach reflects a broader shift in office leasing, where landlords are focusing on flexibility and hospitality-style perks to lure tenants wary of long buildouts and high upfront costs.

The campus spans multiple addresses along Morado Circle and Jollyville Road, near the convergence of Highway 183, Loop 360 and MoPac Expressway — a location that factored heavily into the buyers’ investment, according to the publication. The surrounding Arboretum area has long been a draw for tenants seeking suburban accessibility with urban-style retail nearby.

Just down the road from the Arboretum is the Domain, a booming part of Northwest Austin where the city saw its biggest office leases last year, including Nvidia’s nearly 100,000-square-foot lease-up at Brandywine Realty Trust’s One Uptown.

The corridor is poised for significant change, with several nearby properties slated for redevelopment or repositioning, according to the outlet, potentially reshaping the area into a denser mixed-use destination.— Eric Weilbacher