March 2017 | Business View Magazine

138 139 be building over 230,000 square feet of spec, office, and logistic space on 16 acres in that de- velopment. The first building is 106,000 square feet, and that building should come on line in early spring. “On the redevelopment side, there’s a 40-acre development on Bell Boulevard, the main thor- oughfare through Cedar Park.We had multiple studies done on it over the years and all of them came back with rather large price tags on them. So, about a year ago, we decided to break it up into some smaller pieces.We’re taking the southern part of Bell and starting a redevel- opment project that will be a true mixed-use development.We’ve got some parkland in there that the city owns and we’re working on the ac- quisition of some of the other pieces of property. We’ve alreadydone the design on the relocation of a road andwe’ll probablybe starting construction on that road,sometime later this year. “We’ve got another redevelopment project that has a further-out timeline. Two years ago, we bought an active quarry that was in the middle of our city, from Austin–214 acres. In order to get that project, we ended up having to extend the lease of the current tenant in the quarry–Ranger Excavation. Their lease expires in 2023. But, we set aside some dollars to do the Phase Two Environmental Assessment of that property. Once we have that in hand, we’ll probably start putting out some RFPs with some planners and engineering firms to come Cedar Park, Texas up with a plan. It’s a large tract. I think it can be a very special and unique development in Cedar Park, someday, but there are a lot of things that have to be done, prior to that point.” Brewer is cognizant of the fact that being so close to Austin has been a big advantage for Cedar Park and a large reason it has grown so large, so quickly. “If we were out in the hinter- lands, we certainly wouldn’t have seen this kind of development,” he admits. But he believes that the city has other assets that have helped attract new businesses and residents to it. “We’ve got a great school system - the Leander Independent School District - and it has helped drive up growth,” he says. “When we have high tech companies that are looking to relocate, most of the time, these folks have children and they understand the value of a good education and they tend to migrate to those areas that have outstanding school districts.”Also import- ant is Cedar Park’s highly educated workforce. “Over 40 percent have a college education– a bachelor’s degree or higher,” he adds. Brewer also believes that the city’s growth will only accelerate in years to come. “75 per- cent of the workforce leaves this community ev- ery day to go to Dell or Apple or the other high tech companies located in this northern ring around Austin, just south of us. And as the traffic in Austin continues to grow, and the area con-