Austin Business Journal writes, "Oracle Corp. seems about ready to move forward with long-term plans to expand its headquarters campus near downtown Austin.
The software giant in late August filed documents with the city of Austin outlining plans to add a third office building, measuring 287,510 square feet, to the site it owns off East Riverside Drive. It could also build a 255-room hotel.
The growth will be to the west of Oracle's (NYSE: ORCL) existing office buildings, which measure nearly 1 million square feet combined. The company wants to modify a planned unit development, or PUD, that governs the area's zoning by adding a more than two-acre tract bordering Tinnin Ford Road. The tract is home to the former Town Lake Village Condos, which Oracle bought in 2021 for a reported $43 million-plus and secured approval to demolish last year, the Towers blog reported.
Richard Suttle, a land use attorney with Armbrust & Brown PLLC who represents Oracle, sent an Aug. 24 letter to the city describing the plans. News reports began emerging last week about Oracle's manuevers.
Suttle told the Austin American-Statesman that a site plan has not yet been filed and that the zoning request could take "months" to work through commissions before reaching City Council. But he told the paper that the move shows Oracle is "reaffirming their commitment to Austin, Texas, as their headquarters."
In total, Oracle owns about 50 acres off South Lakeshore Boulevard, just southeast of Austin's Central Business District. The company opened the campus 2018 and designated it as corporate headquarters in 2020, although its hybrid work model has raised questions about just how much decision-making power resides in Austin. At last check, Oracle had an estimated 2,800 employees in the city.
Expansion has always been in the cards for the waterfront campus. When it opened, the company said it could eventually house 10,000 workers. Oracle Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison described at the opening celebration how he fell in love with the site on a visit and had grand plans for the land.
"We bought all this real estate and we're not done yet," Ellison said at the time.
It was not clear what companies might work on the next phase of the Oracle campus. In the first phase, Ryan Cos. was the general contractor, Austin-based STG Design was the architect and TBG Partners was the landscape architect.
Eventually, Oracle could also grow to the east. The company has proposed a land swap with the city of Austin, where it would give the city 48 acres farther down the Colorado River and in exchange for buying or leasing nine acres at 2525 S. Lakeshore Blvd., home to the Parks and Recreation Department's Central Maintenance Facility. Voters approved the plan in 2021 but nothing has happened yet.
Oracle already owns the Azul apartments next to its office buildings, offering a place for workers to live."
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Will Anderson
Published: September 11, 2023
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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