Fully leased SoCo retail hub changes hands

A fully leased retail building along one of the most popular shopping strips in Austin has a new owner.

An undisclosed buyer has purchased the small but prominent building at 1333 South Congress Avenue in South Austin, the Austin Business Journal reported. 

The most recent owner was an LLC linked to New York-based Clarion Partners. The Clarion affiliate acquired the 21,000-square-foot property in December 2015, public records show.

JLL brokers facilitated the deal, representing the buyer and seller. The price was not disclosed, but the property is valued at $11.6 million for tax purposes.

The South Congress corridor, also known as SoCo District, has maintained retail occupancy levels of about 95 percent for the past decade, according to JLL. That’s a rare feat in the Austin metro, where only Round Rock saw occupancy above 90 percent in the first quarter, according to CBRE.

South Congress commands high rents, in the triple digits per square foot. The strip’s recent additions include high-end retailers such Birkenstock and Sézane at Music Lane, plus a new executive chef at Hotel Magdalena.

Several ambitious mixed-use developments are in the SoCo District’s pipeline, many of which include a retail component. Related Companies is planning a multi-tower project that’s slated for 800 residential units, a 225-key hotel, 200,000 square feet of office space, 120,000 square feet of retail and a 25,000-square-foot grocery store.

A venture of Intracorp and Leifer wants to build a seven-story building, at 2105 and 2109 South Congress Avenue, with about 280 luxury condominiums and apartments, along with 15,000 to 18,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space

Furthermore, Trammell Crow is working to redevelop the Twin Oaks Shopping Center into a mixed-use hub with nearly 1,000 homes, a hotel, offices and retail spaces. 

—Quinn Donoghue

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