Stonepeak Partners LP, which operates as a private equity firm and does business as Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, plans to set up an office in Austin, Texas, amid concerns of potentially higher state taxes in New York, Bloomberg News reported, citing a memo sent to investors June 5.
Unnamed sources told Bloomberg that Stonepeak co-founders Mike Dorrell and Trent Vichie, who were former deal makers at private equity giant Blackstone Group LP, intend to move their families to Austin after initially working most days in New York. The planned move comes in light of President Donald Trump's tax reform plan that sets a new $10,000 limit on state and local tax deductions, including property taxes.
Stonepeak is finalizing a lease for 8,000 square feet of space on the uppermost floor of the Third + Shoal building in Austin, which is currently under development and anchored by Facebook Inc., the news outlet wrote, citing one of the sources.
Austin will be the third office for Stonepeak, which is raising capital for its third fund. It already has offices in Houston and New York, where it is poised to relocate to a 30,000-square-foot space in Hudson Yards from a roughly 14,000-square-foot space at 717 Fifth Ave.
The $15 billion firm is backed by several Texas investors, including the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Employees Retirement System of Texas and the Texas Municipal Retirement System.
A Stonepeak representative did not comment on the Austin move. A Third + Shoal leasing representative also refused to comment on Stonepeak, but told Bloomberg that the building will be mostly complete in the fall and that tenant move-ins will start in early 2019.
