Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has more than 1,200 acres where its first Taylor semiconductor-manufacturing unit will open later this year, but the company already is leasing more space offsite, according to a media report.
Park79 Commerce Center on U.S. 79 already has secured at least one major tenant doing business with Samsung and is courting other suppliers to the South Korea-based chip manufacturer.
Officials earlier this month said the 362,000-square-foot industrial park by developer Quannah Partners had leased 140,000 square feet to an undisclosed company.
The lease, considered to be one of the largest in the region, isn’t another Samsung supplier but the company itself, according to reporting by the Austin Business Journal.
Citing a source “with direct knowledge of the deal,” the ABJ notes that Samsung will use the space, which makes up about 40% of the industrial project near its fab plant in southwest Taylor, as a warehouse.
Real estate brokers representing the Park79 project also have not revealed the tenant.
A Samsung spokesperson, asked by the Taylor Press for confirmation of the lease and what the space would be used for, declined comment.
The first company to move into the development is Infinity Link Logistics LLC, which has close ties to Samsung and other semiconductor-industry players.
Infinity, which counts Taylor as its headquarters, is occupying 87,000 square feet in the 69-acre industrial park.
Thanks in part to a deal with electric vehicle and robot manufacturer Tesla, Samsung is getting close to a fully operational, advanced semiconductor chip plant in Taylor that will directly employ about 1,500 people by the end of 2026 and draw hundreds more jobs for suppliers of goods and services to the company.
Samsung is developing a next-generation chip for Tesla as part of a contract that Tesla CEO Elon Musk says is worth at least $16 billion through 2033.
In early March, the Taylor Press reported the City Council passed several engineering agreements to allow for speedy reviews of building designs and approvals for a planned second phase of Samsung’s development next to Taylor High School.
While there are no specific start dates for the second fab unit on the Samsung campus, the contracts between the city and HDR Engineering ensure Taylor will be ready to help any new site plans and construction move quickly
Thousands of construction and later permanent positions could be in the future as the company adds fab units at its Taylor and Austin campuses as needed.
Taylor and Williamson County tax abatement agreements already are in place if those expansions come to fruition.
The Taylor fab — industry jargon for a semiconductor fabrication facility — is at 1530 FM 973. Samsung officials and Gov. Greg Abbott in November 2021 announced the global firm was locating a plant in Taylor funded by an initial investment of $17 billion.
Years earlier, Samsung broke ground on its Austin site in March 1996.
