SouthStar Bank, currently under construction at 6001 Steiner Ranch Blvd., Austin, should be open by late summer or early fall, said John Wilkinson, SouthStar Bank senior vice president of marketing.


The 7,900-square-foot building with two drive-thru lanes will be adjacent to three additional structures on the bank-owned site that abuts RR 620, he said. The site is in the first phase of three total phases that includes the bank build-out and the infrastructure for three additional pad sites, development of medical or professional offices in the second phase, and the construction of a car wash or similar project on the final pad site in the last phase, he said.


“Development opportunities beyond the bank are still being explored,” he said.


Only 2.75 acres of the 20-acre bank site will be developed, Wilkinson said.


One of the four remaining tracts not owned by SouthStar Bank was sold to a partnership that will be developing an automotive repair shop, said Max Appling, commercial real estate agent with The Kucera Co., which is leasing the property.


Appling said he has had interest from medical tenants, including general practitioner physicians and specialists, as well as professional users such as accountants, attorneys and interior design firms. The strongest interest has been for the smaller pad sites—2,000 square feet and 5,000 square feet, he said.


“People are tired of fighting the traffic,” Appling said of the interest among local residents in the property. “They’d rather just have a place in the front of their neighborhood and not spend much of their time commuting.”


He said additional interest in the project comes from potential buyers who would rather not pay rent and have ownership in their business property instead.