Pike Place-esque Market Headed for Austin

AUSTIN—Austin is getting a $120-million public market that its developers hope will conjure—and be just as iconic as—Seattle's Pike Place Market.

GroundFloor Development and Prescott Group are behind Saint Elmo, a mixed-use project set to open in Austin in 2018. Designed by Andersson-Wise Architects and located on South Congress near Ben White Boulevard in South Austin, Saint Elmo will include 225,000 square feet of creative office space and feature a 40,000 square foot indoor-outdoor marketplace, seated alongside the new location for Austin's famed Saxon Pub.

"There is going to be nothing like this in Austin,” Brandon Bolin, president and CEO of GroundFloor Development, told GlobeSt.com. “With this large-scale public market, we are creating a destination for the city of Austin and visitors alike. We have traveled the world studying other markets of this scale and we are going to take best practices and incorporate them into Saint Elmo. We are also building a creative industry cluster like nothing we have in the city."

Matthew Roy Spillers, of Spill-Lab Productions and managing partner of Saint Elmo Public Market, says the development “will be the people's market of Austin.”

“The vision is based on the very best and most energetic markets from around the world. Pike Place in Seattle, Torvehallerne in Copenhagen and Mercado San Miguel in Madrid are all inspirations for the project,” Spillers says. “Regional markets of similar scale would be Union Market in Washington D.C., The Source in Denver, and on a smaller scale, the new Krog Street Market in Atlanta. Saint Elmo is committed to creating an artful and beautiful place where people will enjoy Austin's local culture.”

Bolin and Spillers, both Austin residents, are partners in the Saint Elmo Public Market Co., which will oversee the management and tenant curatorial process for the market. Bolin was inspired to pursue the project after discovering the 9.5-acre site that currently houses the Office Furniture NOW! warehouse, which was originally a factory that housed school buses for Austin. The developer has subsequently added 2.5 acres to the site. The site is less than 10 minutes from the airport and five minutes from downtown. In November of last year, Austin City Council approved the rezoning request for the project. Construction is slated to begin in mid-2016 and the opening is slated for the first quarter of 2018.

The creative office space will be tailored for companies driving music, entertainment, media, technology and other innovative industries

Curtis Jaggars with JLL Capital Markets has been selected to arrange the capital for the project. On the leasing side, Peloton Commercial Real Estate has been selected as the broker of the office space and CBRE has been selected as the broker of the public market. The rest of the team includes KBGE's Chad Kimbell as the civil engineer and David Hocker of Hocker Design as the landscape designer.

“CBRE is very excited to be a part of the Saint Elmo Market development and marketing team,” says Eric DeJernett, senior vice president for CBRE. “The overall mixed-use project will be a catalyst to transform the entire Saint Elmo area into one of Austin's primary creative hubs. Saint Elmo Market is destined to be a gathering place for great food, art, music, innovation and collaboration.”