You're in Good Company in Pflugerville

Applied Materials may expand footprint in Pflugerville

By Justin Sayers- Senior Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal

A semiconductor supplier that with a long history in Central Texas appears to be eating up more space in a Pflugerville business park.

Silicon Valley-based Applied Materials Inc. is listed on a Sept. 11 filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation as the tenant for an "interior warehouse finish out" project in 160,000 square feet at the 130 Crossing park. Construction work, which is estimated to cost $850,000, is scheduled to start in November and be finished by January at the 3100 E. Pecan St. site.

That comes about six months after officials confirmed to Austin Business Journal that Applied Materials leased a 170,000-square-foot building in the same business park, which is scheduled to be completed next month, according to a separate TDLR filing. That project was described as a "first generation warehouse finish out." It should be noted that TDLR filings are considered preliminary and are subject to change.

Applied Materials did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A representative for Stream Realty Partners, which represents 130 Crossing developer and owner Ironwood Realty Partners LLC in lease negotiations, declined to comment. A representative from Ironwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As warehouse spaces, these buildings might not be huge employment hubs for Applied Materials. But they indicate the company is growing its presence in the metro as semiconductor activity picks up across the region.

Bob Rice and Parker Rice from Ironwood are the developers on the project. Sam Owen, Will Nichols and Adam Green of Stream represent the landlord.

Ironwood in April announced that it was breaking ground on the final phase of 130 Crossing, which is near State Highway 130 and Pecan Street. The business park is scheduled to eventually total more than 1 million square feet. The third phase will add three buildings and roughly 490,000 square feet to the five existing buildings in the class A industrial park.

Developers at the time said the first two phases absorbed 675,000 square feet collectively with strong leasing success, including a 52,000-square-foot built-to-suit office and 113,000-square-foot warehouse for Wisenbaker Builder Services. They said about 340,000 square feet had been leased by "a major Austin employer," without naming the company.

That would fit the bill and apparent scope of Applied Materials' presence at the park, which appears to be in buildings three and four. The company creates equipment and software that the world's largest chipmakers use to produce semiconductors. Manufacturing experts have suggested that every chip in the world comes into contact with an Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) product at some point in their creation.

The company established an Austin presence in 1992. Its campus at 9700 E. U.S. Highway 290, near Lake Walter E. Long, is one of the largest manufacturing plants in the region, and the company had roughly 3,300 local employees at last count. The U.S. 290 site is about nine miles south of the Pflugerville business park.

Additionally, Applied Materials has been tied to a potential $2 billion-plus project on more than 400 acres in Hutto. The status of that project was unclear — the company earlier this year gave up an option to buy hundreds of acres, but Bob Farley, Hutto's economic development director, told ABJ at the time that discussions with the company were ongoing.

In previous public filings, the company estimated the project could create at least 525 jobs and consist of 849,000 square feet of "state-of-the-art development labs and manufacturing facilities, which will be home to Applied’s next-generation [research and development], manufacturing and innovation engine."

The 130 Crossing development is marketed with a "strategic location" near State Highway 130, offering visibility and logistical advantages. It is next to the Amazon.com Inc. distribution center that opened in 2021 and employs hundreds.

Amy Madison, executive director of the Pflugerville Community Development Corp., said in a statement in April that the 130 Crossing will help bring projects to the region, resulting in capital investment and job creation.

"We felt very confident bringing on Ironwood from the very beginning because of their experience and dedication to understanding tenant needs," Madison said at the time. "It’s no wonder 130 Crossing’s buildings have been occupied so quickly over time. They provide so many options to tenants that they are superior in quality and spec-specific."