Red Oak is keeping its foot on the gas in Central Texas, even as economic headwinds rattle the broader development market. CEO Tom Staub signaled the company remains committed to its ambitious Lockhart project — a large-scale mixed-use development that observers have dubbed a "mini-city" — while emphasizing discipline over speed.
"We're still cautiously expanding, and head is down on executing these projects," Staub told the Austin Business Journal, a posture that reflects a wider trend among regional developers who are proceeding with major builds but hedging against interest rate volatility and shifting demand curves.
The Lockhart project, anchored along the Lone Star corridor roughly 30 miles south of downtown Austin, represents the kind of satellite development that has gained momentum as land costs inside Travis County continue to climb. Caldwell County, where Lockhart sits, has emerged as a pressure-release valve for Austin's growth — attracting logistics, residential, and mixed-use investment that the urban core can no longer absorb affordably.
For Austin's tech and business ecosystem, the build carries real implications. As remote and hybrid work norms persist, companies and their employees are increasingly open to locating outside traditional tech hubs like the Domain or East Austin. Purpose-built nodes with live-work-play infrastructure could reshape where Central Texas talent chooses to put down roots.
Red Oak's measured tone also speaks to a broader recalibration happening across the Sun Belt development scene — ambitious pipelines paired with tighter execution discipline. Whether Lockhart becomes a genuine extension of the Austin metro's innovation economy or a standalone regional hub remains to be seen, but Red Oak appears determined to find out.