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Newmark has been appointed the exclusive listing agent for the 64,000-square-foot creative office development to be built at 1141 Shady Lane, located in the East Austin opportunity zone. Newmark represented Summit, NJ-based Saxum Real Estate and Austin-based PlaceMKR in the land purchase, and Senior Managing Director Jesse Weber and Director Joshua LaFico will exclusively represent ownership in the leasing of the new development.
The development, which will feature 62,000 square feet of creative office space, 2,000 square feet of adjacent retail/restaurant space in a renovated historic structure and approximately 9,000 square feet of outdoor courtyard space, will be Austin’s first ground-up Opportunity Zone (OZ) office development. Qualifying as an OZ Business - with 70% of assets leased in an OZ and 50% of gross income derived from operations in an OZ - provides tenants with many benefits, including the ability to raise capital by receiving direct investment from Opportunity Funds or by issuing equity interest to investors and various tax advantages for said capital investment.
“This is an extremely beneficial project for the progress of East Austin,” said Weber. “With groundbreaking scheduled for July 2019, our team is excited to represent Austin’s first ground-up creative office development in the Opportunity Zone.”
“We are proud to work on behalf of Saxum and PlaceMKR, identifying high-quality tenants that will activate the project,” commented LaFico. “Additionally, the project will have elements of affordability that are intended to support the creative class with two live-work units tied to tenants’ median income levels.”
One of the most vibrant communities in the greater Austin area, East Austin has become a hotbed for technology innovation centers for mature companies. Recently, Google, car2go (division of Daimler), Resideo (Honeywell International Inc. spin-off), Opcity (division of News Corp subsidiary Move Inc.), Favor (division of H-E-B), CAKE Corporation (Sysco company) and The Zebra have signed office leases in the submarket.
The project is part of East Austin’s thinkEAST master-planned development, which features live/work space, flexible studio space and a substantial residential component. The 1141 Shady Lane project will represent the sole office supply immediately adjacent to approximately 875 multifamily units of planned development, including ALTA Trailhead and The Studio at thinkEAST.
In 2016, East Austin saw the delivery of its first creative office product, 1645 East Sixth Street. It has since become the most sought-after submarket in the Austin metro, with rental rates increasing from $25.50 per square foot NNN to more than $40.00 per square foot NNN since 2016.
About Newmark
Newmark (“Newmark”), operated by Newmark Group, Inc. (“Newmark Group”) (NASDAQ: NMRK), is one of the world’s leading and most trusted commercial real estate advisory firms, offering a complete suite of services and products for both owners and occupiers. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently owned offices, Newmark’s 16,000 professionals operate from approximately 430 offices on six continents. Newmark’s investor/owner services and products include investment sales, agency leasing, property management, valuation and advisory, diligence, underwriting, government-sponsored enterprise lending, loan servicing, debt and structured finance and loan sales. Occupier services and products include tenant representation, real estate management technology systems, workplace and occupancy strategy, global corporate services consulting, project management, lease administration and facilities management. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.
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