Yantis: Taylor growth explosion coming
On the eve of Samsung Austin Semiconductor’s opening in 2024, a tidal wave of development is poised to flood through Taylor and transform the existing landscape.
So said Taylor’s Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis Sept. 18 as the featured speaker for Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce’s Monthly Business Luncheon held at The Taylor Mansion Estate & Crystal Ballroom.
“We have a lot going on,” said Yantis, who recently gave his secondary title, the “director of development services” to former Assistant Director of Development Services Colin Harrison, who also attended the luncheon, to take over more of the dayto- day development issues for the city due to the large volume of projects.
“There is so much activity going on in the city right now from a development standpoint, that it really does take a committed team of people to keep up with it all and make it go smoothly,” Yantis said. “We don’t always succeed in the smoothly part, but we try very hard, and Colin is instrumental in that.”
Taylor’s Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis highlights developments in Taylor Sept. 18 as the featured speaker for Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce’s Monthly Business Luncheon. Photo by Nicole Lessin
During the luncheon, Yantis shared that 1,167 living units are coming online in the area in the immediate future, as well as 103 hotel rooms, 6,366,000 square feet of industrial space, including Samsung, as well as 367 acres comprised of 15 lot for suppliers.
To give a context of how this all will transform the landscape, Yantis highlighted Partners Capital TaylorPort, just one of the industrial buildings currently under construction on the southwest side of town.
“Just to give you an idea of the scale, the 366,000-square-foot building is one-fourth mile from one end to the other,” Yantis said. “That is a big building.”
And that is just a fraction of what is in store for Taylor. From hotels to industrial spaces to retail to an additional rail park to multifamily dwellings to estates, Taylor will soon have it all, the assistant city manager shared.
Through his presentation, Yantis said 14 projects are currently under construction, 17 that have an application submitted and/or approval, and seven more are in the planning stages.
In contrast, when Yantis first started, there were only three such projects on the map.
“I started five years and a week ago working at Taylor in the summer of 2018, and I was coming from Leander, which was and continues to be one of the fastest growing communities in the country,” said Yantis, who served as assistant city manager there five years. “I was used to fast growth, and so when I got to Taylor in 2018, it was starting to have some growth, but I thought this would be a little bit more of a relaxing pace of work … It did not stay that way for very long.”
Another site featured by Yantis was Talbot Commons, a three-phase mixed-use property in the downtown area that is transforming the former First Presbyterian Church and education buildings into 11 boutique hotel units and multifamily living units as well as a restaurant in the former sanctuary.
“It’s very needed,” Yantis said.
Yantis also highlighted Southpark Industrial, a planned industrial subdivision located on the south side of town.
“This to me is really exciting because this industrial development was actually developed in the 1980s, and the land just sat there with the utilities in the ground for forty years with no buildings constructed, and finally someone bought the whole thing and got the first new building approved this week,” Yantis said. “So that will be great because we need industrial sites for new industrial businesses, and we already have utilities around them.”
During the luncheon, Yantis fielded questions from community members, including from St. Paul Lutheran’s Pastor George Qualley who asked about water availability to service all this new development.
“Where is all this water going to come from?” he asked.
Yantis assured the attendees that it would be flowing alongside all the new developments, and that Samsung has a separate contract in place with a third-party supplier for its industrial needs.
“All the water is provided through the Brazos River Authority through a needs-met contract,” Yantis said. “We tell them how much we need, and they will provide it.”
