Real estate heavyweights plan massive office park at closed 3M plant in North Austin

By  Kathryn Hardison – Austin Business Journal

1.2M square feet could rise off Research Boulevard near Apple campus.

A site of nearly 60 acres is poised for redevelopment in busy North Austin where 3M Co. used to run a manufacturing plant.

The first two of five planned buildings will be 235,000 square feet and 250,000 square feet; those will be shovel-ready by the third quarter of this year, according to Karlin’s website. Officials with Karlin declined to comment, and officials with 3M and Trammell Crow did not return requests for comment by publication time.

To put the plans to transform the old 3M plant into perspective, it would be about one-third the size of the new Apple campus, which is supposed to be 3 million square feet. At 1.2 million square feet, the project would be slightly smaller than Barton Creek Square mall.

The commission considered a rezoning request for 5.6 acres off Research Boulevard, which is just a small portion of the total 57-acre property.

The rezoning request will tweak details of the current conditional overlay on the 5.6-acre site. The main goal is to allow for development up to a height of 60 feet, Swor said at the July 6 meeting.

Swor said the rezoning isn’t critical for moving forward with the project because the property already allows construction of up to 2.5 million square feet of commercial uses by right.

“This project can be built without this rezoning change,” she said. “What we are asking for is a rezoning change to allow for a better project.”