Office Users Evaluate Less Density and Larger Per-Person Footprints

AUSTIN, TX—Auctane LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stamps.com and operator of ShipStation, ShippingEasy, ShipEngine and ShipWorks, will become the first office tenant in The Grove at Shoal Creek, a mixed-use project in central Austin. The e-commerce shipping software operator has signed a lease for 105,385 square feet at 4301 Bull Creek Rd.

The move enables Auctane to bring all of its brands together under one roof for the first time, allowing the company to accommodate its rapidly growing team. It currently has three different central Austin office sites, with the primary location nearby at 3800 N. Lamar Blvd. The new space is anticipated to be ready for employee occupancy in approximately nine months.

“Our business has grown quickly and so has our team. We needed a centrally located space where we could bring everyone together, with easy access to retail, parking and greenspace,” said Bryan Jones, chief operating officer at Auctane. “The Grove was far and away our best option.”

Encompassing 76 acres at the southeast corner of 45th Street and Bull Creek Road, The Grove has a blend of urban development, planned amenities and open space for a live, work, shop and play environment.

The Grove’s developer is ARG Bull Creek Ltd., a joint venture between MileStone Community Builders and Castletop Capital. Castletop is the developer of the entire 21-acre commercial component of The Grove and has brought on Trammell Crow’s Austin office to lend extensive development expertise to the commercial tracts.

The mixed-use portion features 185,000 square feet of office space among mid-rise apartments with ground-floor retail. The first multifamily complex called Korina at The Grove is now signing leases in anticipation of resident move-ins later this month. Ultimately, a total of 1,548 residential units will be built with a mix of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and apartments. There are also retail spaces available for lease.

John Gump and Kelly Woodruff with CBRE in Austin represented Auctane in the lease.

“This class-A new development will offer employees access to top office amenities along with walkability to all of the retail components and ample greenspace,” Woodruff said.

Developer Castletop’s representative, Travis Dunaway, principal with Endeavor Real Estate Group, along with Anne Swift, senior vice president with Endeavor, agrees.

“Now more than ever, tenants want to upgrade their employees’ lifestyle while saving money on their rent and parking as compared the cost of the central business district. It’s an incredibly hard solution to find, but The Grove has it,” said Dunaway, noting the project has the walkable benefits of downtown with more open space, parking and a neighborhood/urban feel.

Endeavor Real Estate Group has the office leasing and office/retail management assignment for The Grove while Edge Realty has responsibility for retail leasing. The Grove has partnered with Greystar to oversee the management of the multifamily portion.

“Indications we are receiving from many business owners is the necessary work-from-home experiment has proven just how important office space is to a company’s culture and productivity,” Swift tells GlobeSt.com. “While many companies may have more people work from home, a greater percentage of the time post-COVID, they’re also actively planning strategies to get back to the office. We see companies evaluating plans to have less densely packed spaces, meaning a larger footprint per employee than before COVID as well as companies focusing on employees’ wellness in the office, valuing access to amenities and outdoor spaces such as balconies, courtyards and parks.”

Gensler was the architect for the office block, which was constructed by Balfour. JHP is the architect for the multifamily block which is being constructed by Andres Construction. Nudge Design is the landscape architect for the commercial blocks at The Grove.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that the Austin economy continued to contract due to the impact of COVID-19. The Austin Business-Cycle Index, a broad measure of economic activity in the metro, fell an annualized 20.3% in May, suggesting a weak economic performance. Austin’s unemployment rate dropped to a still-elevated 10.4% in May, while the unemployment rate in Texas and the US ticked down to 13% and 13.3% respectively. Austin jobs dropped by 114,320 net jobs in the three months ending in May. All sectors except financial activities experienced payroll losses during this period. Leisure and hospitality plunged 87%, shedding the most jobs (-56,000), while health and private education services declined 47% (-19,300). The financial activities industry recorded a 30.7% gain, adding 4,750 jobs.