The first phase of the undertaking, 7500 Rialto at Lantana, will add 77,500 rentable sf to the market. A mirror-image second building also is planned for the 29-acre site off William Cannon between Southwest Parkway and Texas 290. The buildings will closely resemble the fully leased 7000 West at Lantana, a two-building development totaling 140,000 sf.

Meanwhile, Stratus has started to review which Lantana tract will be next on the drawing boards, Rick Lindley, project manager for office development, tells GlobeSt.com. Two permits are in hand, but that's down the road. The game plan now is to focus on 7500 Rialto. The two-story, value office with class-A finish will be ready by December, he says.

Lindley says talks are ongoing with prospective tenants, but the project is coming out of the ground strictly on spec. "We've had some great conversations...but there's nothing signed yet," he says.

Lindley says the submarket's demand is the driving force for starting a project in today's sluggish economy. "We're in a submarket that at the end of 2000 was 99% occupied. And in that submarket, we're $2 to $3 below everybody else," he says. The new building's rent will be $17 triple net.

"We feel we've done our homework," Lindley explains. "Our economics are good. Our rental rate, the Hill Country setting, our amenities and our access ... we feel we can lease up the building."

Stratus has earmarked 10 acres of the project site for a nature trail. Showers will be built along the designated trail for users of the hiking trail and nearby popular bike trail that loops Lantana proper.

Zapalac-Reed of Austin is the general contractor for 7500 Rialto, a design of Susman Tisdale Gayle, also of Austin. TBG Partners, another Austin firm, is the landscape architect.

Stratus had bought the 500 acres in 1994 from the RTC. The first phase of 7000 West had broken ground in March 1999 and delivered that December. The second phase had delivered 11 months later. And that, says Lindley, is the projected timetable for the latest Lantana two-building project. At full build-out, Lantana is projected to add 1.7 million sf of office and retail space to the market.