Austin approves $87M planned purchase of Tokyo Electron campus – The Business Journals
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Months after Tokyo Electron put its massive Southeast Austin campus up for sale, it appears to have found its buyer. The city of Austin is set to negotiate the purchase after getting the go-ahead from Austin City Council. The city has big plans for the site — think, Mueller neighborhood.
The city of Austin is on track to buy Tokyo Electron Ltd.’s 107-acre campus in Southeast Austin that formerly served as its North American headquarters.
Negotiations for the up to $87 million purchase are set to begin after City Council gave the go-ahead during its March 21 meeting. Of that, more than $27 million is expected to come from Project Connect anti-displacement funds.
Mayor Kirk Watson previously said the property has the potential to be transformed into a dense, transit-oriented neighborhood, likening it to the Mueller neighborhood but “intentionally built around public transit and with the benefit of the lessons learned about ensuring affordability and other challenges in a much-in-demand planned community.”
As part of the potential deal, Tokyo Electron is requesting the opportunity to lease back the two buildings on the campus through Dec. 31, with the option to extend on a month-to-month basis through March 31, 2025, according to city documents.
The company, which employs about 450 people in the Austin area, is relocating its North American headquarters to the RiverSouth office tower south of Lady Bird Lake near downtown. The maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment is also on the hunt for another 140,000 square feet in the metro. It has said it wants to open a 40,000-square-foot office in Taylor to support Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s semiconductor plant in the city, in addition to a 100,000-square-foot research facility somewhere in the area.
City spokesperson Shelley Parks previously confirmed to the Austin Business Journal that the two existing buildings on the site, which comprise 189,795 square feet on 46.8 acres, would be used for a second Combined Technology and Emergency Communications Center and as office space for future city needs.
Parks said the other 60.3 acres of undeveloped land at the campus had plenty of “promising opportunities” for the East Riverside and Montopolis communities.
Watson previously said the city “has an incredible chance to take a big step toward our affordable housing goals” through the deal. Workforce housing is also a potential for the site.
The site is a couple of miles down East Riverside Drive from the Oracle Corp. headquarters and next to a former semiconductor factory owned by the University of Texas. It’s about a 10-minute drive to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and roughly 15 minutes to Tesla Inc.’s gigafactory.
It’s also located along the city’s planned light rail route, although the future of Austin’s planned light rail system is unclear as it faces resistance from some local groups.
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