Stonemont closes on land for spec industrial warehouse near Austin

Stonemont Financial Group, a private real estate investment firm specializing in industrial development, acquisitions and net lease investments, announced today that it closed on a land sale that paves the way for a 230,000-square-foot rear-load facility in Georgetown, Texas near Austin. Called Westinghouse35, the development marks Stonemont’s first project in Central Texas and will help fill a void for Class A industrial product for an array of e-commerce and third-party logistics providers that have recently opened or expanded amid Austin’s economic boom.

Westinghouse35 is located on an 18-acre site directly off of Interstate 35 on Westinghouse Road, offering convenient access to major transportation routes including Highway 130 and sitting just under 30 miles from Austin. The state-of-the-art building contains 32-foot clear heights, 58 dock doors, up to 345 auto parking stalls and 68 full-size trailer parking stalls. The project is slated for completion in the first half of 2023.

“With the industrial landscape of Central Texas growing at an accelerated rate, it was a natural decision to plant our flag in the region and utilize our spec development expertise to help address the needs of the market,” said Stonemont CEO and Managing Principal Zack Markwell. “Stonemont is proud to play a part in greater Austin’s growth story as one of the top places for innovation and development in the nation. The entire state of Texas is keeping us busy as we continue to build out a network of meaningful partnerships that will position us for steady growth and success in the years ahead.”

While this is Stonemont’s first project in Central Texas, the firm has already established a strong presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with 1.5 million square feet of distribution centers and speculative development buildings under management or construction. These projects include 230,000 square feet of warehouses in McKinney, 480,000-square-foot and 213,000-square-foot warehouses in Fort Worth and a 565,000-square-foot warehouse in South Dallas with a Summer 2022 groundbreaking.

Demand for industrial space in the greater Austin area has been high in recent years, driven by an influx of major users into the region including Tesla, Samsung and Oracle. This demand dropped the vacancy rate down to 4.9% in Q4 of 2021, with over 3.5 million square feet of total net absorption in the same quarter. The current supply of new construction in the Georgetown industrial submarket is expected to be absorbed by year-end as suppliers for Tesla and the nearby Samsung chip plant in Taylor come to market. Austin has had the fastest growing metropolitan statistical area in the nation for the past eight years, providing the additional advantages of an impressive labor pool and low cost of living.

Additional project partners include KBC Advisors as leasing agents, ARCO/Murray acting as design-build contractors, with in-house architect GMA and Kimley-Horn acting as civil engineer.