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The Austin Innovation District is an inclusive community where Austinites collaborate to create new models of health and economic growth for all.

It is:

  • Positioned in a vibrant downtown neighborhood at the heart of central Texas’s cultural and business center
  • Poised with world-class talent, companies and research
  • Emerging as a nexus of innovation for healthcare, technology and life sciences industries

“The Austin Innovation District will be a world-class innovation hub where businesses partner with educational and healthcare institutions to create big solutions to big challenges. We are seeing tremendous growth in our region's healthcare, life sciences and technology clusters because companies see this opportunity and want to be a part of it.”

— Gary Farmer, Heritage Title Company of Austin President and Opportunity Austin 4.0 Campaign Chair

Innovation Tower, the District’s Flagship Building, Is Now Leasing

This one-of-a-kind downtown Austin neighborhood has moved from generating buzz to breaking ground. Redevelopment of Central Health’s downtown property, the former Brackenridge Hospital Campus, has begun. Innovation Tower, the district’s flagship building, will be complete in spring of 2022. For information about locating in Innovation Tower, view the leasing brochure. For information about investing in other opportunity sites or collaborating with our innovation network, view the district’s brochure.

A 3D map rendering of the Innovation District showing the area

The Innovation District Opportunity

In 2019, the Downtown Austin Alliance commissioned a market analysis to measure the potential economic impact of the Innovation District over the next 10 years. The goal of the study was to guide the creation of inclusive, place-based, and market-guided economic development and real estate strategies for the Downtown neighborhood anchored by the University of Texas at Austin’s new Dell Medical School, Dell Seton Medical Center, and the Central Health Downtown campus.

Market Demand and Economic Impact Analysis

To measure the potential economic impact of the Innovation District’s over the next 10 years, the Downtown Austin Alliance and Capital City Innovation commissioned HR&A Advisors, Inc. and Perkins + Will to conduct a comprehensive market analysis.

View Report ⟶

Executive Summary: Market Demand and Economic Impact

Austin’s Innovation District will be the center of a Central Texas-wide innovation network. Learn how the district leverages our city's assets and catalyzes opportunities in our Market Demand and Economic Impact Analysis Executive Summary.

View Summary ⟶

Capital City Innovation

Capital City Innovation is the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit that is providing vision, strategic direction, advocacy, and synergy among the organizations and individuals creating, growing, and sustaining Austin's Innovation District. It was founded by Central Health, Seton Health, and The University of Texas at Austin and began operations in 2017.

Watch Video⟶

Austin’s Growing Life Sciences Industry

A growing cluster of life sciences companies is changing the face of health care in Austin through pharmaceutical and biotech development, medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare information technology. Learn more about this key industry on the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Life Sciences page.

Texas’s Global Life Sciences Hub

Austin’s Innovation District was showcased at Bio Digital 2021, the world’s largest biotech partnering experience. Courtesy of the Bio Texas delegation, it was featured at the conference’s Global Marketplace where countries, states and regions highlight their biotech sector. Watch the BioTexas video to see why Texas is a global life sciences hub.

And, from the Texas Economic Development & Tourism department, click here to read how Texas’s emphasis on cutting-edge innovation and collaboration have created a climate where biotech and life science industries can flourish in the future.

Autonomy Institute

The Autonomy Institute is accelerating the “Path to Commerce” for intelligent and autonomous systems. This includes Digital Infrastructure, Autonomy and AI at the edge. It is a government, industry, academia and public alliance to create the policies, markets, jobs and community benefits of autonomy, starting with the Intelligent and Autonomous Infrastructure that is the equivalent of the Eisenhower Interstate Highways. Austin and the University of Texas at Austin are participating in the Institute’s the Public Infrastructure Network Node (PINN) program, a platform of intelligent infrastructure that will create unified communities, eliminate the digital divide, and install the equivalent roads of the 21st century.

What’s New in the District?

Media Coverage

Austin Monitor
Panel weighs future potential of city’s health care innovation district

KVUE
‘Innovation District’ around UT campus to bring big changes to Downtown Austin, new report claims

CBS Austin
Progress report expected for new health-related downtown “Innovation District”

Austin Business Journal
Report: Innovation district to bring thousands more jobs to downtown in next 10 years

KXAN
Austin medical Innovation District would generate $800M, 2,800 new jobs, study finds

Austin Business Journal Crane Watch
Innovation District Takes Shape

KTBC
Austin looking to have Innovation District downtown

Photo Credit: Dell Medical School

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