Downtown Austin: Hines Buys Skyscraper

In Austin, Hines Global Income Trust has purchased the 405 Colorado office building in downtown Austin for $151 million.

The seller, Brandywine Realty Trust, was represented by Eastdil Secured.

The 206,000-SF tower is 100% leased to tenants including JPMorgan Chase, Bain & Company, and AllianceBernstein, Hines said in a news release.

Hines: U.S. Office Market is in Recovery

“We believe the U.S. office recovery is in progress, with demand concentrated in fully leased trophy assets. In office, our strategy involves selectively acquiring best-in-class properties with strong tenants and highly visible income, while maintaining our focus on grocery-anchored retail, said Alfonso Munk, Global Co-Head of Investment Management at Hines. “We’re investing where we see the potential for strong alignment between income durability and attractive pricing.”

The Austin building is located on the northeast corner of Fourth and Colorado streets, just west of Congress Avenue.

Brandywine first laid out plans to build 405 Colorado in 2016. “405 Colorado can’t be built fast enough,” Diana Holford, Senior Vice President at JLL said when plans to build it were reported 10 years ago. “The demand to be in Austin’s downtown market is at an all-time high and the supply of large blocks of new, well located office space is at an historic low.”

But years went by before a work start actually occurred. The building was planned as 25-story structure topping out at 366 feet in height. Twelve floors were devoted to covered parking. The tower was designed by Duda Paine Architects.

Comp Sales

At the end of 2024, another major office building sale was reported in Austin. Cousins Properties paid $522 million ($649 per SF) to buy the 35-story Sail Tower from Trammell Crow. Google leased the entire 800,000-SF tower, which sits on the Lady Bird Lake waterfront in downtown.

In 2021, Kilroy Realty paid $580 million to acquire the 700,000-SF Indeed Tower in downtown Austin.