A 50-acre industrial site known as Taylor 50 with 853,000 square feet of space is shaping up as the newest addition to the city’s burgeoning tech hub, driven by the pending debut of Samsung Austin Semiconductor.
The project includes an employment center.
Information about the site, which is north of U.S. 79 and east of CR 101 on CR 395, was brought before City Council last week.
“These are ideal sites for really large industrial buildings because the topography is very flat,” said Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis. “It’s pretty far removed from the existing utility infrastructure so it will have some utility infrastructure extensions that are required in order to develop the property, which will be part of the next steps of the process.”
The property is in the Jonah Water Special Utility District. An extension of sewer infrastructure from Lorax Lane will be required to bring it into the city’s sewer district, officials said.
The development is part of Taylor’s Small Area Plan for Special Employment District – North, an area set aside to help the city meet the growing demand for industrial/warehouse space and bring more jobs to the town.
Much of the growth is being driven by Samsung’s multibilliondollar semiconductor foundry, officials have said.
“The Special Employment District was created to provide a location for other, largescale employment land uses that are associated
with (Samsung) or other regional high-tech businesses,” according to city documents.
“These areas should be preserved for large-scale industrial users and low-density, single-family development is not recommended in these areas.”
The property owner is listed as Taylor 49 LLC, a part of Transcend Group Holdings LLC, and the project is being spearheaded by Viewpoint Engineering in Austin.
The developer is hoping to market the sites as large buildings — 120 to 250 feet deep — with over 853,000 square feet of total industrial space, but made a special request to be allowed to transition to mixed use if initial plans don’t work out.
“One of the unique characteristics of this plan that the applicant requested was a statement that will be in the plan that says if, after a three-year period of adoption of this plan, they are able to demonstrate a lack of market demand for these building types, they can request an amendment to this plan to allow mixed use on the property,” Yantis told the council.
The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the plan at its Aug.13 meeting.
City leaders will consider adopting the ordinance at their Sept. 12
meeting. According to officials, several other large industrial or commercial initiatives are underway in Taylor include RCR Taylor Logistics Park, Quannah Partners LLC’s 69-acre industrial park, iMarket America Inc., a 150-acre industrial park by KDC called Taylor HQ and a 330-acre mixed-use project under Megatal Group.
“ “It will have some utility infrastructure extensions that are required in order to develop the property.”
— Tom Yantis, assistant city manager
