Meta Finally Lands Subtenant for Austin Trophy Tower

Meta finally found a taker for one floor of its space at Sixth and Guadalupe, more than two years after putting 33 floors up for sublease.

The social media giant secured a subtenant for the 32nd floor of 400 West 6th Street in downtown Austin, the Austin Business Journal reported. The tenant could be the first tenant to move into the 589,000-square-foot block Meta pre-leased in 2021 but never occupied. 

Meta confirmed the deal but did not identify the new tenant. The floor spans about 30,000 square feet, according to CoStar. Cushman & Wakefield, which is marketing the sublease, updated the listing to reflect the reduced availability — now down to 558,000 square feet, or about 95 percent of the original lease.

Meta first put the space on the market in November 2022. 

It joined a wave of major tech tenants — including Google — attempting to shed space after inking huge Austin leases during the pandemic. 

Google signed a full-building, 804,000-square-foot lease at the nearby Sail Tower in 2019 but has yet to occupy the building and is now subleasing its top six floors. Digital Realty Trust recently signed on for a 11,000-square-foot executive suite there, and Google said it will move in later this year. 

Despite the sluggish leasing pace, the Sixth and Guadalupe tower hasn’t been idle. 

Its street-level retail has tenants, and its upper-level residences, branded as Residences at 6G, are partially leased. The tower, developed by Lincoln Property Company and Kairoi Residential, is also the precursor to Waterline, a 74-story project that would become the tallest building in Texas when completed in 2026.

Meta is one of Austin’s largest tech employers, with an estimated 1,500 local staffers still based at its Third + Shoal and 300 West Sixth offices. Its Domain 12 lease, another major block once up for grabs, was fully subleased to IBM last year.

Sixth and Guadalupe still holds the largest contiguous sublease block in Austin, a distinction that underscores the city’s tech-driven overhang in office supply.

— Judah Duke

Read more

Digital Realty nibbles piece of Google’s Sail Tower sublease

Cousins lands IBM for Domain building left vacant by Meta

Meta drops $3M on office buildout, but for whom?