AUSTIN, Texas—Two Oak Ventures, the parent company and ownership group of Austin FC, today announced the Club’s official training facility, St. David’s Performance Center, will be located at the Parmer Pond in North Austin. Owned by Karlin Real Estate, Parmer Pond is the anchor amenity being developed at Parmer Austin, the 300-acre premier campus in the Parmer Innovation Center portfolio (13011- D McCallen Pass, Austin). The 23-acre complex will become the training home of Austin FC and its Academy teams. This venture between Two Oak Ventures and Karlin will be managed by Austin FC, and it is the first such facility in Major League Soccer (MLS) to be developed as an anchor to a larger mixed-use development featuring office buildings, entertainment, hospitality, public gathering places and recreation. It will feature the name of the Club’s official healthcare sponsor and first founding partner, St. David’s HealthCare.
St. David’s Performance Center is scheduled to open in time for the Club’s first MLS season match in spring 2021 and will be home to Austin FC’s first team and Academy teams. It is located off Parmer Lane just minutes from the new MLS soccer park and stadium being constructed.
“St. David’s Performance Center will be a world-class facility that will be integral to Austin FC realizing its full ambition as a soccer club,” said
Anthony Precourt, majority owner and chief executive officer of Two Oak Ventures and Austin FC. “This is a significant investment in our team, both at a senior level and for Austin FC Academy, as it is where the first team will train each day just minutes away from our new stadium, preparing to represent Austin by winning matches and trophies, and where we will help develop the next generation of talent. The health, wellness, development and security of our players are top priorities, so it’s critically important that we provide them with a facility that will set standards, not only within MLS, but also in professional sports nationwide.”
St. David’s Performance Center, estimated to be a $45-million total capital project, which is in addition to the $250-million Austin FC stadium project, will be privately funded by Two Oak Ventures, and the 23-acre site will feature four (4) full-sized pitches (three natural grass surfaces and one artificial turf surface which will include spectator stands). Two of the grass pitches that are exclusively dedicated for Austin FC’s first team will be configured as a “super-pitch” (two surfaces combined to allow for greater levels of programming flexibility). The official training facility of Austin FC, which is being designed by Gensler, will also include one (1) half-sized, natural-grass pitch and other adjacent training areas for specialized skill instruction. In addition to the soccer pitches, St. David’s Performance Center will showcase a single-story 30,000-square-foot building which will house Austin FC players, soccer operations and technical staff and Academy players on a daily basis. The facility will be designed with separate buildings for the first team and Academy and will accommodate potential future expansion. St. David’s Performance Center will enable Austin FC to serve its players with expertise in medicine, high performance, training, nutrition, physiotherapy and turf management. In support of the first team and the Academy teams, the state-of-the art facility is presently scheduled to feature training and medical technologies, including advanced cardio and physio equipment, recovery rooms, water therapy and cryogenics, among others.
“St. David’s HealthCare is dedicated to the health and wellness of the Austin community—both inside the walls of our hospitals and beyond—and we are committed to serving as a true partner to Austin FC,” David Huffstutler, president and chief executive officer of St. David’s HealthCare, said. “With the new St. David’s Performance Center, we will bring the same exceptional level of care provided in our facilities to Austin FC, allowing us to optimize each player’s potential.”
St. David’s Performance Center will be located at the Parmer Pond within Parmer Austin—the showcase development in the Parmer Innovation Center portfolio. The development, which sits off Parmer Lane, just east of I-35, presently totals over one million square feet of office, including Fortune 500 tenants such as 3M, General Motors and Home Depot. The master plan includes a dining and entertainment district including hospitality and an amenity center anchored around Parmer Pond, which is the southern end of the Parmer Austin development. It will be nestled directly adjacent to the St. David’s Performance Center, creating a first-of-its-kind training facility in MLS where a team’s training grounds is part of a mixed-used development and a larger-scale economic growth driver for the community.
This Parmer Pond “district” will provide a gathering spot next to the single-turf ‘spectator pitch’ for Austin FC and Parmer Austin tenants, as well as public events and matches. Tenants, supporters of Austin FC, parents of Academy players, match spectators and members of the community will have the opportunity to enjoy the amenities at the Parmer Pond. Austin-based firms STG Design and TBG Partners are leading the design, and Trammell Crow Company is the master developer of Parmer Austin, which has become a model for six other mixed-use business parks—Parmer Innovation Centers—that Karlin has created in the U.S. and globally.
“With the addition of Austin FC, Parmer Austin will provide an unparalleled amenity experience for tenants and the community alike to enjoy an Austin FC Academy game, visit a brew pub, eat at a local restaurant, sit by the 11-acre pond or play in a pick-up game of soccer on the public field,” Matthew Schwab, managing director, Karlin Real Estate, said. “It’s exciting to see our vision for the Parmer Innovation Center as a destination development come to life.”
"Because we’re less than 10 minutes from Austin FC’s stadium at McKalla Place, we’re also looking forward to an exciting synergy between the two sites on match days beginning in 2021, in addition to hosting away-game viewing parties at the Pond,” Schwab said.
Noting the many partners that it takes to undertake a project of this magnitude, Precourt said, “I’m grateful to St. David’s HealthCare and Karlin Real Estate for sharing our vision of making this training facility the best in MLS and creating something unique within the MLS.”
Providing competitive perspective, Austin FC head coach
Josh Wolff commented, “This announcement is another key building block in the formation of Austin FC. We want to support our players and staff with the best possible facility to create an environment built around high performance. The St. David’s Performance Center will allow us to prepare for competition while leading the way in injury prevention as well as recovery and rehabilitation. It is also important to integrate our Academy teams into the playing philosophy we are going to implement for our first team, so it is good to see the Academy so well embedded into this facility.”
“As a former MLS player, I am familiar with the importance of having access to the best possible training facility, and St. David’s Performance Center will instantly provide our first team and Academy teams with the best training facility in the country,” added Tyson Wahl, Austin FC Academy GM. “Austin FC’s investment in a training facility that also provides world-class resources for the Academy teams, including the opportunity to be embedded with the first team, will help Austin FC Academy achieve the ambitious developmental and professional pathway goals that we will continue establishing for our youth players.”
