Live Oak to Invest $11 Million in San Marcos Real Estate Development

Staff Reports

SAN MARCOS, TX – Live Oak, a Texas-based real estate development and brokerage services firm, has announced plans to construct a new speculative space facility in San Marcos to be called Barnes 35. The new $11+ million facility will offer nearly 135,000 square feet of industrial space for operations requiring a newly constructed building.

Located at 320 Barnes Road near Interstate 35 and Wonder World Drive, the facility will consist of two buildings on 14 acres of property. The buildings will be built as Class A Industrial/Flex space for office use, showrooms, research and development, or light manufacturing. Live Oak expects the facility to be completed by the end of 2022. Building renderings are attached to this email.

Live Oak, which is headquartered in Austin, owns, leases and manages more than 8 million square feet of development in Central Texas, spanning from Austin to San Antonio. This is Live Oak’s first major development in the Texas Innovation Corridor.

“The corridor between Austin and San Antonio continues to see rapid growth in investment, infrastructure and workforce talent” said Ryan Whalen, vice president of Live Oak. “From a long-term investment perspective, we believe that San Marcos is a great place for us to plant our flag.”

Both the City of San Marcos and Hays County entered into tax incentive agreements (Chapter 380 and Chapter 381, respectively) with Live Oak. Under the agreements, the property will have a 100% real property tax rebate in Year 1, a 75% rebate in Year 2, and 50% in Year 3.

The maximum amount of rebate is estimated at $66,046 over the life of the agreement. However, the agreements would expire as tenants are secured, which means the incentive could be significantly less should the property lease quickly.

Over a ten-year period, the City will add more than $725,000 to its real property tax revenue from this facility. In addition, the County will add approximately $374,000 and the school district would add more than $1.25 million during the same time period.

“Speculative space facility development has been proven over and over again to be an effective strategy in attracting and securing new employers with high quality jobs that provide good pay and benefits,” said Jason Giulietti, president of the Greater San Marcos Partnership (GSMP).

Companies such as FedEx, Lowe’s Distribution and Amazon have brought hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax roll revenue to the region after choosing spec space facilities built under tax incentivized agreements. The newest spec space expansion by Live Oak is another example of how Hays and Caldwell Counties are meeting the need of relocating and expanding companies.

About Live Oak

For more than 35 years, the principals and professionals who merged to form Live Oak have represented a leading force in Central Texas commercial real estate. Live Oak is the product of a strategic merger of three respected organizations: Live Oak Group, The Gottesman Company and the Leasing and Property Management Divisions of Trammell Crow Company (TCC). Formed in early 2007, Live Oak is a vertically integrated, full-service commercial real estate firm with diverse holdings and operations spanning the office, retail, industrial and land development sectors of the Central Texas market.

About the Greater San Marcos Partnership

The Greater San Marcos Partnership (GSMP) is the 501c6 regional economic development organization serving the city of San Marcos and Hays & Caldwell Counties, focused on positioning the region for a wider diversity of quality jobs with higher wages. The GSMP mission is to increase economic opportunities for all in the heart of the Texas Innovation Corridor. Visit greatersanmarcostx.com for more information.