The land, on the south and west sides of Buda, includes a good chunk of freeway frontage. Buda Mayor Keith Thornsberry expects high interest in the land, which is going to quadruple the size of Buda. Most of the land along the freeway, Thornsberry tells GlobeSt.com, has been used for RV and mobile home sales because the cost of development was prohibitive to most developers.
"You just could not do it in an economical fashion because the rules on water quality and such were much more stringent than they are here in Buda," Thornsberry says. "On top of that, the time could be anywhere from six months to 18 months to building something out there."
Thornsberry is optimistic that developers will want that Buda address. Joyce Weedman, who heads the land group at NAI/Commercial Industrial Property Co., agrees the annexation makes the land attractive. "The fact that Buda now controls that land will have a great impact on the immediacy that a developer can go in and get lots ready for users," Weedman tells GlobeSt.com. "What we're watching for is how much of that area Buda is going to be able to serve with utilities, whether they can cover the cost of those lines through that 5,500 acres."
With the Heap Ranch development on the horizon, it's likely that Buda will soon see an unparalleled growth spurt in the coming months. The biggest commercial addition to Buda in the last couple of years has been the H-E-B grocery store. That store alone tripled Buda1s sales tax base.
And while San Marcos and Round Rock have been higher-profile candidates forthe Advanced Micro Devices Inc consolidation, Thornsberry says Buda also has been on the list of candidates. The consolidation of AMD's Central Texas operations could be a $3-billion deal, Thornsberry says.
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