Southwestern University quietly cashed in on its vast real estate holdings, fattening its endowment and putting it in the driver’s seat of a 560 acre development set to expand the reach of its campus in Georgetown.
The 185-year-old liberal arts school amassed holdings in the thousands of acres — more than any other private college in Texas — over the course of decades, the Austin Business Journal reported. One tract donated in the 1930s sold for $28 million during the pandemic boom.
Southwestern started selling after an audit of its real estate portfolio five years ago, and its endowment has grown $377 million, up from $289 million four years ago, with proceeds largely earmarked for financial aid.
The university held back a massive parcel east of campus, where it is advancing plans for a mixed-use district called Southwestern University 560, envisioned as a “mini city” with housing, offices, retail, restaurants, a boutique hotel, cultural spaces and a concert venue. The City of Georgetown, about 30 miles north of Austin, has agreed to build a service center there for 275 city employees.
Southwestern tapped Austin-based Banbury Development — best known for co-master-planning the 700-acre Mueller redevelopment in East Austin — to lead the project. The first phase is slated to hit Georgetown’s planning commission this month, with horizontal infrastructure work targeted for completion by next year.
The design process has leaned heavily on community input. A 20-member task force of students, faculty and alumni, along with a packed town hall, pushed for a blend of career-building opportunities, cultural amenities and environmental preservation.
Only 325 acres will be developed, and 70 acres will remain open as an “eco gateway” with creeks, floodplains and trails.
Laura Skandera Trombley, president of the university, previously ran Pitzer College and the Huntington Library in California. She framed the project as a chance to cement Southwestern’s unique identity in a fast-growing region, noting that no other liberal arts college in the United States has this type of opportunity.
Greg Weaver, CEO of Banbury, said the mixed-use development could attract unique retail and corporate headquarters.
Williamson County has been one of the hottest growth markets in Texas, and corporate tenants are already scouting for campus-like settings with retail and residential built in. The 560 could be a financial engine and a recruiting tool for Southwestern University as well — a town-and-gown experiment at a metropolitan scale.
— Eric Weilbacher
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