la Frontera In the News
Austin American-Statesman
January 27, 2001
Round Rock business hub to expand // Open-air shopping center will be part of La Frontera development
by Elizabeth Goldman, American-Statesman Staff
A Houston development company has announced plans for a shopping center at La Frontera in Round Rock, while construction of an office building on the site begins. The open-air shopping center, being developed by Weingarten Realty Investors, will add to existing retail space on the 329-acre, master-planned community at the intersection of Interstate 35 and FM 1325.
Located near Dell Computer Corp.'s campus and two other shopping areas, the Boardwalk and Round Rock Crossing, La Frontera also will house office space, apartments, restaurants and a Marriott Conference Hotel set amid green space and trails.
Still in the early planning stages, the Weingarten development will include about 300,000 square feet of retail space housing 35 to 40 shops, six or seven free-standing restaurants and several sidewalk cafes, said Patty Bender, vice president of leasing for Weingarten. The company is in discussions with several retailers who might sign on as one of three anchor spots in the shopping area, filling as much as 50,000 square feet each.
The first retail space at La Frontera, the 700,000-square-foot La Frontera Village developed by Developers Diversified Realty and David Berndt Interests, opened in October.
Construction of the Weingarten project should begin late this year and should be completed in the last quarter of 2002, Bender said.
Closer to completion are the two office projects under development by Los Angeles-based Kennedy-Wilson International and San Antonio- based Koontz McCombs LLC.
Kennedy-Wilson International starts construction on its $20 million, 190,000-square-foot building on Monday. The three-story building at 301 Sundance Parkway should be completed by the end of the year and has started seeking tenants, said Kennedy-Wilson senior managing director Phil Capron.
Construction began in December on The Summit at La Frontera, three two-story buildings being developed by Koontz McCombs LLC. Senior project manager Greg Powell said the office space should be completed by late summer, and discussions with prospective clients are underway.
Neither developer expect s to have trouble filling the buildings, thanks to a combination of location, high-tech infrastructure and convenience. Both projects will have redundant power sources and phone lines supported by a TXU Communications regional switch on the site.
Round Rock and Georgetown are drawing more developers as housing prices force residents north of Austin, Capron said. "La Frontera itself is attractive because people can go across the street to do their shopping or eat lunch," he said. "You don't find many things like that along MoPac or Loop 360."
Bender, who sees La Frontera as a third shopping hub for the northern part of Austin, -- joining the Arboretum and Lakeline Mall, said response has been "tremendously positive" from retailers so far. "They are very impressed with what they already see in the project," she said.
The Weingarten project is part of 1.5 million square feet under negotiation as the second phase of development at La Frontera, said Dan Listrom, president of Austin's First Regional Properties, the broker for the land. That adds to 2 million square feet already completed or under construction. When finished in three to five years, the project will encompass about 5 million square feet.
