Slater’s Austin Surf Club Faces More Liens

Austin Surf Club, a 333-acre private artificial surf park and condo project, is facing at minimum an additional $11.6 million in construction liens as work grinds to a halt.

The surf club, just east of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, is being developed by a list of who’s who in the pro surfing and real estate community. Kelly Slater, 11-time World Surf League champion partnered with Scottsdale, Arizona-based Discovery Land Company on the project. Chase Koch, son of businessman Charles Koch, has been connected to the ownership group, as well as local tech startup figure Jasen Trautwein.

Austin Surf Club Venture LP, the controlling entity, raised around $66 million from investors, according to the Austin Business Journal. The leadership group acknowledged that construction on the site was paused in April. In the same month, they were hit with $4.6 million in liens for work done in 2025 and 2026, according to the outlet. The latest round of liens brings the total north of $16 million.

To get the project back on its board, the landowners filed a petition to establish a Municipal Management District to generate property tax revenue from the development and allow the developers to fund infrastructure improvements.

The petition had support from landbuyers, including former local Westlake High School and first-ballot NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees, according to the publication. The controlling entities also filed paperwork to remove the development from Austin’s extra-territorial jurisdiction, slashing a bit of red tape. It’s currently unclear whether the liens have been resolved. The text of the petition said the needed infrastructure costs were about $171 million, according to the outlet.

The development is marketed as a mixed-use lifestyle residential community, complete with a 2,200-foot-long surf basin and 178 private residences. It’s being built at the former site of NLand Surf Park, which shut down in 2018.

— Hunter Cooke