Dutch Architecture Firm Plants Flag in Austin

When asked why Dutch architecture firm UNS is planting a flag in Austin, managing director Frans van Vuure asked “Why wouldn’t you come to Austin?”

The firm, which first partnered with the city of Austin in 2023 to develop a light rail system, chose Austin as the location of its first U.S. office, the Austin Business Journal reported.

“We really felt like this was the place for our nest,” van Vuure told the outlet.

Currently the firm works out of a co-working space at 301 North Congress Avenue in Downtown Austin, but when the firm outgrows the space, it’s planning to stay downtown or choose a spot near Lady Bird Lake.

UNS also has offices in Amsterdam, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Shanghai. The firm is known for its design work on mixed-use, public and infrastructure projects, like the 991-foot Wasl Tower in Dubai and the metro network in Doha, Qatar. Van Vuure told the outlet that UNS is currently looking at projects in New York City, Detroit, Houston and Dallas.

The choice comes amid cooling enthusiasm for Austin among corporate tenants looking to relocate to Texas.

Tech companies that flocked to Austin before the pandemic have been retracting their large swaths of office space, leaving the city’s office market with a glut of sublease space. For example, Facebook’s parent company Meta has been slowly whittling down its 589,000-square-foot lease at Sixth and Guadalupe in Downtown Austin.

Slowing growth in the city also means Austin is reconsidering the tools at its disposal to attract corporate tenants. Previously, Austin’s reputation was enough to fuel a steady stream of corporate relocations, but it’s been reduced to a trickle, prompting Mayor Kirk Watson to say the city has grown “too passive” in recent years. He recently outlined a plan to target certain sectors, like AI, and offer incentives to attract corporate tenants.

— Jess Hardin