Tesla leases 683,000 sq ft Austin building in Musk’s Texas sweep
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- Tesla leased a 682,000-square-foot speculative industrial building at the Austin Hills Commerce Center (11801 Decker Lake Road), set for completion in January 2027.
- Sansone Group and Principal Asset Management are developing the building; the full center will span 1.4 million square feet once complete.
- Musk now controls 2.2 million square feet of leased space around Austin plus more than 10 million square feet of owned space across his companies, stretching from Taylor in the north to Kyle in the south and down to Cameron County.
- The portfolio already includes Gigafactory Texas (10M+ sq ft) and a reported 112,000-square-foot xAI sublease at the Seaholm Power Plant downtown.
- The building's "speculative" label — built without a pre-leased tenant — makes Tesla's decision to take phase two a vote of confidence in regional demand, with at least a dozen other 400,000+ sq ft speculative builds underway in the area.
- Tesla hasn't disclosed the space's purpose, with possibilities spanning vehicle logistics, parts storage, service operations, energy products, or robotaxi-related uses tied to its Austin robotaxi program.
- The lease lands amid Musk's broader Texas buildout, including Terafab — a $20-25 billion Tesla/SpaceX chip fabrication venture that could cost up to $119 billion across all phases — and Optimus robot production facilities at Giga Texas's North Campus.
Why it matters: The lease underscores how concentrated Musk's industrial footprint has become in Central Texas, spanning Gigafactory Texas, Starbase, a new $20-25 billion chip fab venture, and Optimus production in a single region where a dozen other speculative buildings are already racing to come online.
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