W2 Real Estate Partners is ready to break ground on Frontera Ridge, a 400k SF Class-A office campus in Round Rock. It's on the last major land parcel within the 328-acre, 4M SF La Frontera mixed-use development, and directly fronts SH 45. The $100M project can be doubled to 800k SF, but for now plans call for two 200k SF Class-A office buildings around a park area. The Central Green, as it's called, is modeled after Silicon Valley campuses and will have special event space, a food truck plaza, outdoor lounge areas, rain gardens and shaded terraces. It's designed to preserve a group of large 100-year-old oak trees. Frontera Ridge is targeting LEED Silver.
Site development could begin as early as January, but W2 hopes to lock in significant pre-leasing before breaking ground. EVP Steve Freche says the property should appeal to large corporate tenants who want a beautiful campus within the tech hub of Round Rock but at a value. (Northwest Austin has become more appealing to companies as rents in the CBD have reached new highs; some recent large company relos to the Round Rock area include Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Emerson Process Management, whose campus W2 developed.) Frontera Ridge is designed by STG Design with TBG Partners handling land planning. Cushman & Wakefield/Oxford Commercial's Mark Greiner and Brett Arabie are leading leasing. Harvey Cleary is GC, and Waeltz & Prete is civil engineer.
