The Aspen Lake building was left empty when its owners filed for bankruptcy, citing USD 10 million of debt. However, the building has now been bought by Crimson Real Estate Fund LP and its partner USAA Real Estate Co.
Crimson is controlled by real estate investment giant the Patrinely Group.
Aspen Lake offers 205,000 square feet of Class AA office space. Its new owners hope to lease office space in the four-storey building to expanding businesses based in Austin. However, since being built in 2008, the building has sat empty.
Dennis Tarro, senior managing director of Patrinely, told the American Statesman: “With the local office market experiencing strong absorption in recent quarters, we think now is a great time to buy an asset such as Aspen Lake.”
Texas is a state that is expected to see significant growth in office rental over the next few years, Tarro added.
Dean Patrinely, managing principal of Crimson Real Estate Advisors told the newspaper that the building was located “in a market that has positive job growth and is projected to rebound more quickly than other cities and the national real estate market as a whole.”
In the last three months of 2010, US property collections fell by USD 5.3 billion, or 2.9 per cent. According to Moody’s Investors Service, the taxable value of housing will sink during most of this year. This will make it hard for local governments to balance their budgets.
Additionally, mortgage research firm CoreLogic has recently stated that a slew of homes, which have not yet gone on the market, will extend the current housing slump. This “shadow inventory” could number up to 1.8 million homes the research firm reported.
Editor’s notes: The Aspen Lake building was renamed Aspen Lake One and, as of June 2023, the 205,000-square-foot office building was 100% leased, and the asset had been purchased by Fortis Property Group
One of the high-profile companies that rented office space at the property was international flexible office provider Regus. The Regus space at One Aspen Lake includes 68 private offices, coworking desk lounges and meeting rooms for companies of all sizes but particularly those that favour short-term office rental contacts and all-inclusive pricing.
As predicted by the commentators in this article, the city of Austin welcomed a number of high-profile occupiers to its office market in the years that proceeded its publication, including Cloudflare, Facebook, Indeed, Tesla and TikTok.