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About seven years ago, when he was newer in the commercial real estate industry, one of Mick Hawton's mentors shared insight with him that has stuck with him to this day.
What he essentially told him was that Travis County would be more difficult to engage as the region's growth had attracted a cache of well-grounded, highly professional and competent people in the industry. He suggested looking at all the communities around Austin and doing things from the outside-in.
About one year ago, he joined Georgetown-based Headwater, which is practicing just that. The full-service commercial real estate company is involved with some of the biggest projects in the suburbs, whether it's helping build the Hanwha Advanced Materials LLC project in Georgetown, revitalizing Liberty Hill's downtown or building a massive industrial complex at the Hutto Megasite.
"It's not that we're against doing anything in Austin or things more in Travis County. That's great. We love the idea of it," said Hawton, a partner at the company and its chief strategy officer. "We just realize that there's so much need in some of these communities in and around Austin that we can stay busy for a long time and never really get into Austin proper, so to speak."
The fruits of the labor of that plan are coming to fruition. Headwater has a staff of about 25 people since its 2020 founding and has $164 million assets under management across 14 past and current projects. It expects that asset total will increase 43% over the next 12 months, while the company grows its total square footage by 68% in the same time period, buoyed by more than 450,000 square feet already under construction.
Essentially, they're putting themselves in a position to "level up" alongside the communities they're working in, Hawton said. Their entire backyard, Williamson County, is now competing on a global scale for development spurred by the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. investment in Taylor.
"We're not a big global firm, we're a small local developer, but we see there are ways that we should and can be participating on that scale," Hawton said.
Big moves for legacy company
While Headwater's full-scale development wing was officially launched in 2020, the other pieces of the company have a combined 70 years of experience, according to Hawton. That includes about 50 years of construction experience and a little more than 15 years as a brokerage.
Where Headwater's impact can really be seen is north Georgetown. That's where the company helped transform what used to be green fields into a dense industrial space through brokering land, working with other developers to build and partnering on building utility easements.
"We touched every aspect of that area in one way, shape or form. ... To be able to activate and help develop a significant geographic area certainly is a great legacy for Headwater," Hawton said.
What makes the company different is that it's involved with every step of the project from idea to fruition, he said. That includes brokerage, capital funding, commercial construction and property management. Headwater also will partner with other developers to build a project.
Hawton said the company also meets with leadership in the smaller cities around big population centers to determine how to partner on big projects that will be pivotal to those communities, such as cities in Williamson County and Mustang Ridge, Uhland, Lockhart and Seguin on the other side of the Austin metro. Projects could be industrial, retail or downtown mixed-use.
"I think the geographic part is not as important to us as it is the relationships that we have there and the ability to be able to interact with those communities and really providing something that we think is of value," he said. "We're really interested in understanding the community's desires and needs and then working alongside them to bring about projects that have the most value for that community."
The biggest challenge, he said, is that the scale and scope of the projects have often times never been done in these communities. But he said that partnership and collaboration with the communities plays a big role in getting the projects off the ground.
"Sometimes a project in a big place can happen and it doesn't make as big as a splash, and maybe it doesn't get noticed in the same way. But a project that happens in a smaller community can have a much bigger splash, so it impacts things differently," said Hawton, who also serves as the chair of the board of the Greater San Marcos Partnership, which handles economic development for Hays and Caldwell counties south of Austin.
Megasite plans
One of the biggest projects that Headwater has ever worked on is pegged for the Hutto Megasite. Headwater is one of a handful of developers working to bring large speculative buildings, data centers and much more to shovel-ready green space along U.S. Route 79.
Headwater is building 242,000 square feet on about 20 acres that is suitable for research and development and flex manufacturing space, according to Headwater Partner Michael Johnson. The project consists of three shallow-bay industrial buildings, two of which are about 66,000-square feet each and one that is 109,000 square feet.
He hopes Samsung suppliers and vendors that need to be close to the company's fabrication site in Taylor will take the space. Headwater just started marketing the project around the start of May and has already received interest from Samsung and Tesla suppliers.
Headwater's project will offer flexible space and allow users to either own or occupy it.
While Headwater is still working on finalizing plans, the goal is to time the closing of the land and construction with the completion of the Megasite spine road, which is expected in October. That way they can be the first project off the ground, Johnson said.
It's all part of that continued goal to work with cities and their economic development wings to find strong pockets of growth and put their focus on it, he said. At the moment, they're finding that there is no stronger spot in the Austin area than Taylor and Hutto.
"We're just bullish on Williamson County," Johnson said. "There's no better growth than Williamson."
Austin area s.f. under development or delivered
| Rank | Prior Rank | Business name (Prior rank) |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Lincoln Property Co. |
2 | 2 | Stream Realty Partners |
3 | 3 | Titan Development |
