Private capital giant Apollo selects Austin as second home, per report

Apollo Global Management is set to relocate its second headquarters to Austin.

The details on the move are opaque. The Financial Times reported that plans for Austin aren’t final. There’s also no detail on where in town the private capital giant is considering, nor how much space they will need. In March, the company was sizing up possible locations, and reportedly was deciding between Austin, Palm Beach, Miami and Nashville. It appears that Austin drew the lucky straw, but nothing is signed just yet.

If New York-based Apollo does go through with the move, they’ll have the pick of the litter for Class A office. Austin has a 24.5 percent office space vacancy rate, according to CBRE, and there are huge openings at multiple downtown locations such as the Springdale Green campus, Sixth and Guadalupe and 415 Colorado. Renovation work is underway at Uptown ATX in The Domain, Austin’s unofficial second downtown district, which could be considered as well.

The second headquarters is expected to house Apollo’s new hires. According to a recent annual report, the company more than doubled its workforce from a 2020 head count of 2,000.

“This decision is driven by the talent we want to hire and the firm we want to be,” Apollo said in a March statement prior to this week’s decision. “New York does not have a monopoly on talent, and we expect most of our future growth will take place in our second HQ.”

Apollo reports assets across the globe that are worth a staggering $1.03 trillion. The firm manages $700 billion in credit and fixed-income strategies, and their recent acquisition of retirement and lifetime insurance company Athene pushed them into the trillion range. And Apollo’s importance as a lender is growing ever more important. Last year, it completed an acquisition of Bridge Investment Group, roughly doubling Apollo’s real estate assets under management.

Recently, Austin has seen its momentum in corporate relocations slow after a massive wave of tech companies and remote workers pre-and-post-pandemic. The stalling led Mayor Kirk Watson to say that the city had grown “too passive” in attracting corporate interest, and outlined a plan to offer different incentives to those willing to relocate or build in the area.

— Hunter Cooke