La Frontera is a mixed-use development in Round Rock, Texas. It consists of retail, residential and office properties. The name "La Frontera" means "the border" or "frontier" in Spanish, [1] referring to the development's location on the border of Travis and Williamson counties.
The 330-acre project combines offices and company headquarters, more than 1,000,000 square feet (90,000 m2) of retail including La Frontera Village, [2] three apartment complexes [3] and specialized retail, banking and a medical rehabilitation hospital. The project also includes Williamson County's only full-service hotel, [4] the Austin North Marriott which provides space for large conferences, meetings and banquets - a first for the county and an important component of Round Rock's and Williamson County's economic development efforts.[ citation needed ] The center is also home to the 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) corporate headquarters of Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TGSL). [5]
The developers included stringent design guidelines, architectural controls, landscape requirements, and other codes and restrictions. Primary internal roadways were built and dedicated to the City of Round Rock as public roads (versus using private roads as is typical) prior to individual sites being developed or sold. [6] Significant portions of land were given to the Texas Department of Transportation for construction of the tolled portion of State Highway 45.
A unique combined "bundled utility" concept was installed by TXU (now Energy Future Holdings). The installation was one of the first instances of "bundled utilities" in Texas: gas, electric, data, cable and telecom. [7]
Phase II within La Frontera was purchased in 2007 by the Simmons-Vedder Company of Houston and Austin and is planned for up to 2,000,000 square feet (200,000 m2) of office development. [13] Emerson Process Management purchased the first two office buildings, called Frontera Vista I and II, in July 2011, moving their world headquarters to Round Rock and occupying 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of office space with approximately 875 jobs, [14] and a projected 10,000 room nights in area hotels. [15]
Phase III was purchased by Cousins Properties [16] of Atlanta in 1998 for future development.
Austin development partners Don Martin and William S. "Bill" Smalling (1952-2009) [17] along with William V. "Bill" Boecker were the developers of La Frontera. [18] Fort Worth real estate financier Ed Bass provided the equity financing with Boecker of Fort Worth representing Bass on the development team. [19] The land was originally a cattle ranch and was purchased by Martin and Smalling from Austinite Tom Kouri (1924-2007), [20] who raised cattle on the land and was an astute real estate investor, and for whom Kouri Avenue in the development was named in his honor." [21]
The project groundbreaking was in 1998 and all land within the development was entirely sold out by 2008. [21]
The portion of the land where La Frontera now sits was the site of the primary filming of the 1974 cult movie classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre which was filmed in July and August 1973 in a dilapidated farm house on the La Frontera property (located on what was originally Quick Hill Road). Twenty-five years later, in 1998, the house was cut into seven pieces and moved to Kingsland, Texas, reassembled, and meticulously restored as a restaurant for the Antlers Hotel and historic railway district. [23] In Kingsland it is sometimes known as the Texas Chainsaw House. [24] The house was a "pattern book" house, ordered from a catalog and assembled on site from a package of materials brought by wagon from a local lumber company. Research indicates it was likely built between 1908 and 1910. A second "twin" house was later discovered at La Frontera and was moved to Georgetown, Texas. [25] by Martin and Smalling and restored as part of San Gabriel Village development, overlooking the South San Gabriel River. [26]
Williamson County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 609,017. Its county seat is Georgetown. The county is named for Robert McAlpin Williamson, a community leader and a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto.
Georgetown is a city in Texas and the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 67,176 at the 2020 census. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Austin.
Round Rock is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, in Williamson County, which is a part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 according to the 2020 census.
The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Gannett.
The Driskill, a Romanesque-style building completed in 1886, is the oldest operating hotel in Austin, Texas, United States, and one of the best-known hotels in Texas generally. The Driskill was conceived and built by Col. Jesse Driskill, a cattleman who spent his fortune constructing "the finest hotel south of St. Louis".
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Kalahari Resorts and Conventions is a water park resort chain with locations in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; Sandusky, Ohio; Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania; and Round Rock, Texas. Named for the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, the resorts are heavily decorated with African animals and plants, and other African motifs.
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Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas, United States. The area of the district is bound by Lamar Boulevard to the west, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the north, Interstate 35 to the east, and Lady Bird Lake to the south.
Highland Mall was a shopping mall located in north Austin, Texas, United States, on Airport Boulevard west of I-35 and north of US Route 290. Opened in 1971, Highland Mall was Austin's first suburban shopping mall. Highland Mall was jointly owned by General Growth and Simon Property Group until 2011. Austin Community College began acquiring the surrounding land in 2010, assumed ownership of the last parcel it did not already control in August 2011. On April 29, 2015, Highland Mall officially closed its doors.
East Riverside-Oltorf is a neighborhood in Austin, Texas, located southeast of the city's urban core. The East Riverside, Parker Lane, and Pleasant Valley neighborhoods together form the East Riverside-Oltorf Combined Neighborhood Planning Area. The region is bounded on the north by Lake Lady Bird, to the east by Grove Boulevard and the Montopolis neighborhood, Texas State Highway 71 to the south, and Interstate 35 and South River City to the west.
Lakeline Mall is a super-regional shopping mall located in north Austin, Texas, at the intersection of RR 620 and US 183. Although the mall has a Cedar Park postal code, it is physically within the City of Austin. It has 1,099,420 square feet (102,139 m2) of gross leasable area. Construction was initially slated to begin in the 1980s but was stalled due to the savings and loan crisis and later stalled due to the discovery of two endangered species on the proposed site. Lakeline Mall opened on October 11, 1995. The anchor stores are Macy's, JCPenney, AMC Theatres, and two Dillard's stores. A sixth anchor, Sears, closed in 2018.
Las Cimas is an office complex in unincorporated Travis County, Texas, between Austin and West Lake Hills. The buildings, southwest of Downtown Austin, are about 300 yards (270 m) south of the southwest corner of Las Cimas Parkway and Texas State Highway Loop 360. It previously housed the headquarters of Dell and American Campus Communities.
The Antlers Hotel is a hotel and resort built in 1901 by the Austin and Northwestern Railroad on the Colorado River in Kingsland in Llano County in Central Texas. After a brief heyday, The Antlers closed in 1923 and fell into disrepair. It was eventually resurrected by a couple from Austin and reopened in 1996. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as part of the Austin and Northwestern Railroad Historic District-Fairland to Llano historic district.
The Texas Chainsaw House is located in Kingsland, Texas, on the grounds of The Antlers Hotel. This 1900s Victorian house was featured prominently in Tobe Hooper's horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as the home of Leatherface and his cannibalistic family, before it was moved to this location from Williamson County in 1998. The then-dilapidated farm house originally sat on Quick Hill Road during the July–August 1973 filming of the movie. The original site is where La Frontera is now located, in Round Rock.
The Fairmont Austin is a 37-story hotel located on 101 Red River St, in Downtown Austin, Texas. Groundbreaking for the project began on November 3, 2014. The hotel, at 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 m2), is the largest of the Fairmont hotel chain. The hotel tops out at 595 feet (181 m) tall, surpassing Austin's previous tallest hotel, the Hilton Austin Hotel. The Fairmont Austin also features a skyway connection to the Austin Convention Center.
San Jacinto Center is a three-building real estate development in Downtown Austin, Texas. The complex, which overlooks Lady Bird Lake, contains a 21-story office tower, a 10-story Four Seasons Hotel, and the 32-story Four Seasons Residences, a condo skyscraper. The postmodern office tower and hotel are clad in Texas creme limestone and Llano rose granite.
