Partners Real Estate is getting ready to move dirt in Buda, teeing up a 23-acre business park that the firm is pitching as a “flagship” hub for flexible, small-bay industrial users like local contractors, makers and last-mile operators. Branded as the South Austin Commerce Center, the multi-phase project is slated to bring roughly 250,000 square feet of tilt-wall and small-bay space to Buda’s southside, following Partners’ March 2024 land purchase and tapping into a broader developer push to add infill industrial product south of Austin.
According to the Austin Business Journal, the company told the paper it plans to market the park as a prototype for flexible industrial development and is aiming to break ground in the near term. Reporter Justin Sayers framed the move as part of a shift toward smaller-footprint, tenant-friendly industrial boxes that fit how many Austin-area businesses actually operate, rather than the big-box warehouses that have dominated new construction.
On its own project page, Partners Real Estate describes South Austin Commerce Center as a 23-acre site acquired in March 2024, to be built out in multiple phases with up to about 250,000 square feet of buildings. The firm currently lists the development as in pre-development and says it is preparing marketing materials for both sale and lease options while it shops pads and small-bay buildings to prospective tenants.
Why Flexible Industrial Is In Demand
Industry trackers say Austin has been flooded with large speculative warehouse projects while small-bay flex space has stayed comparatively tight, pushing developers to chase infill sites that can serve trades, labs and makers that do not need a million-square-foot box. Research from Savills shows the metro’s industrial vacancy rate climbing into the double digits in early 2025, even as interest holds steady for so-called micro-flex buildings in the 15,000 to 40,000 square foot range. For a deeper dive into how that niche is evolving, Savills and an interview with Method Architecture at ConnectCRE both highlight why those smaller, more adaptable spaces are drawing sustained tenant attention.
Timeline, Scale and Neighborhood Questions
Commercial marketing materials for the Buda site show a master plan with multiple freestanding buildings, with typical unit sizes ranging from roughly 16,000 to 36,000 square feet and addresses along S. Loop 4 attached to the South Austin Commerce Center. LoopNet currently lists the park as an eight-building development totaling more than 200,000 square feet, while the Partners site still pegs the project as pre-development, meaning entitlements and city approvals are key steps before shovels hit the ground. Partners Real Estate notes that it already has marketing packages in circulation for potential tenants and investors…