Austin's Innovation District
Locating and investing in the Austin Innovation District
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.
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?
- Palm District Plan underway
- Project Connect Mass Transit System – The Initial Investment is based on the Project Connect System Plan and includes an all-electric fleet, a new rail system that travels under downtown and an expanded bus system with more routes. The Gold Line, a MetroRapid bus route that could be converted to light rail in the future, travels up through Palm District and the Innovation District to UT Austin.
- Central Health downtown property’s rezoning
- HealthSouth site redevelopment awarded to local developer
- Waterloo Park Grand Opening
- Waterloo Greenway Chain of Parks
- Symphony Square Mixed-Use Project
- State of Texas Capitol Complex
- City of Austin Office of Innovation
Media Coverage
Central Health's downtown innovation district planned unit development project approved, campus cleared for potential redevelopment
More than 14 acres on the eastern edge of Austin's downtown was cleared for potential redevelopment earlier this June, marking another step in the growth of the city's medical and economic innovation district.
Community Impact⟶Panel weighs future potential of city’s health care innovation district
The battle over reconstructing Interstate 35, and the stalled Land Development Code update, are factors that continue to influence the shape and scope of the developing health care innovation district in the eastern section of downtown Austin.
Austin Monitor⟶'Innovation District' around UT campus to bring big changes to Downtown Austin, new report claims
The Downtown Austin Alliance released its findings on Austin’s burgeoning Innovation District on Tuesday, giving a glimpse at how the 123-acre northeast quadrant of Downtown Austin will impact the city over the next 10 years.
KVUE Austin⟶Progress report expected for new health-related downtown "Innovation District"
We’re expecting an update today on progress being made in creating a new health and medicine innovation district in the northeast corner of downtown Austin.
CBS Austin⟶Report: Innovation district to bring thousands more jobs to downtown in next 10 years
A successful innovation district in downtown Austin, focused on advancing health and medical technology and sciences, would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in output and create thousands of jobs in the next 10 years, a new study finds.
Austin Business Journal⟶Austin medical Innovation District would generate $800M, 2,800 new jobs, study finds
A successful Innovation District in downtown Austin, focused on advancing health and medical technology and sciences, would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in output and create thousands of jobs in the next 10 years, a new study finds.
KXAN Austin⟶Austin looking to have Innovation District downtown
The Downtown Austin Alliance talked about the district which would bring together technology, health care, and life sciences to promote new healthcare models and economic growth in Downtown Austin in the future.
FOX 7 Austin⟶First piece of Brackenridge redevelopment falls into place in Austin
For years, leaders have promised that the area around Dell Medical School would be transformed into an innovation district: a mixed-use hub that combined space for health care innovators with residences, offices and stores. Multiple barriers have slowed that progress. But that's about to change.
Austin Business Journal⟶Photo credit for hero area image: Dell Medical School