UT San Antonio Continues to Spur Development
After leasing most of Farinon II to Ernst & Young, Worth & Associates has begun construction of Farinon Business Park III, the third of three buildings in Worth’s master-planned business community.
SAN ANTONIO, TX—Increasingly, the University of Texas at San Antonio is attracting more top companies and development northwest of San Antonio’s city center. For example, local commercial real estate developer Worth & Associates leased a total of 82,000 square feet of office space in Farinon Business Park II to Ernst & Young LLP, which occupies a portion of the first floor and the entire second floor of the building in the highly desirable Northwest submarket of San Antonio.
“More major companies and development are looking to be located northwest of San Antonio’s city center, and EY’s presence will only serve as a greater lure,” said Rick Littleton, senior vice president of leasing with Worth & Associates.
The company chose San Antonio for its new campus with financial services, and US government and public sector practice divisions after a multi-market search. It chose Farinon Business Park primarily because of its proximity to the pipeline of young financial services talent coming out of the University of Texas at San Antonio.
With that leasing effort came the next phase. Worth & Associates has commenced construction of Farinon Business Park III, the third of three buildings in Worth’s master-planned business community at 5818 Farinon Dr. The estimated completion date is third quarter 2019.
“We have leased most of Farinon II to Fortune 500 Company Ernst & Young LLP and the project’s phenomenal success made it clear there is a strong demand for high-caliber office space in this location,” said Charlie Fulton, Worth & Associates vice president of development. “With only 20,500 square feet of available space at Farinon II, we felt the time was right to expand Farinon Business Park. With Farinon III, we are addressing the resulting demand for high-quality office space in this highly desirable area and building on the success we’ve already achieved with Farinon II. Additionally, building III can serve as a great expansion opportunity for a tenant that moves into building II and finds they have continued growth needs within the business park.”
Farinon Business Park III will be a two-story class A office building with 84,890 total square feet, featuring highly efficient floor plans encompassing 41,186 rentable square feet on the first floor and 43,404 rentable square feet on the second. The project will feature a substantial 7/1,000 parking ratio, which is more than twice the city code requirement. More than 100 VIP and executive parking spaces will be located underneath the building with secured entry and direct elevator access into the building. Building III also presents an opportunity for a tenant that leases the remaining 20,500 square feet in building II to expand its presence in the business park to building I.
Worth & Associates’ newest commercial offering will be the third of three buildings in Farinon Business Park, located in the master-planned business community of University Business Park in the growing regional center near the University of Texas at San Antonio. Farinon’s expansive 21-acre site between De Zavala Road and Prue Road features a Hill Country feel with native oak trees and outdoor seating areas, and easy ingress and egress to IH-10, and De Zavala and Huebner roads.
Littleton tells GlobeSt.com that Worth & Associates manages, owns and leases 1.164 million square feet in the Northwest submarket of San Antonio. When Farinon Business Park III is complete, Worth will own, manage and operate a total of 1.248 million square feet in the Northwest submarket. And, Worth develops and maintains its projects to become a long-term partner to tenants.
“Worth always looks to develop projects in locations with incredible access and egress to major thoroughfares,” Littleton tells GlobeSt.com. “Our developments within the Northwest submarket provide close proximity to UTSA and the medical center, allowing their tenants access to these two major employers and providers.”
Office market vacancy in San Antonio remains in the 10% range. Midway through the fourth quarter, the vacancy rate increased slightly at 10.1%, up 10 basis points from this time last month, according to NAI Partners’ recent research report.
Year-to-date, there has been 236,696 square feet delivered to the San Antonio market, with about 100,000 square feet of that being available for lease. Meanwhile, 1.5 million square feet is currently under construction, with an availability rate of 34%. Year-to-date net absorption totals 156,684 square feet, while there have been 565 deals accounting for close to 1.9 million square feet of leasing activity. Year to date, the overall gross asking rent is $22.20 per square foot—the highest ever recorded, says NAI Partners.