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Sandow Lakes / Xebec Megasite

Tier 1B Spotlight on the 33,000-Acre Former Alcoa Manufacturing Substrate

Sandow Lakes is the 33,000-acre former Alcoa industrial site spanning Milam and Lee Counties along Farm to Market Road 1786 south of US Highway 79, approximately 25 miles northeast of Austin and 15 miles east of Taylor (where Samsung is building its $40 billion advanced semiconductor manufacturing campus). The site spans approximately 50 square miles — more than double the size of Manhattan — connected by a series of 15 lakes plus the broader infrastructure substrate that anchored decades of Alcoa aluminum smelting, coal mining, plus broader industrial operations. Dallas-based Xebec Holdings (through affiliate SLR Property I, LP) acquired the property from Alcoa Corporation in November 2021 for $240 million, kicking off a master-planned redevelopment that JLL characterizes as "the only megasite in Texas" given the site's combined power, water, rail, natural gas, fiber, and interstate access at gigawatt-and-multi-million-square-foot scale.

The Sandow Lakes substrate's structural distinctiveness reflects multiple coordinated infrastructure dimensions that no peer Texas industrial substrate matches at comparable scale. Power infrastructure scales from approximately 1.5 gigawatts of existing ERCOT-connected capacity to approximately 3.9 GW by 2028 (per JLL — what the brokerage characterizes as "the largest amount of readily available power in the United States"). The Phase 1 development — the Advanced Manufacturing and Logistix Campus (AMLC), also branded as "The Switch" — comprises 3,300 acres targeted for 35 million square feet of industrial space with first occupancy Q3 2026.

Site and Substrate

The Sandow Lakes site occupies the former Alcoa industrial complex spanning approximately 33,000 acres across Milam and Lee Counties in Central Texas. Distance positioning is structurally advantageous — 25 miles from Austin, 53 miles from College Station (anchoring proximity to the Texas A&M System and the Brazos Valley Semiconductor Concentration covered at Brazos Valley Semiconductor Concentration), 2.5 hours from Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio. The site's specific position 15 miles east of Taylor places it within the broader Williamson-Milam-Lee-Brazos Valley substrate that anchors a substantial portion of the AI-Industrial buildout from Samsung Taylor through the broader US Hwy 79 corridor (covered at US Hwy 79 Corridor) plus the broader Brazos Valley substrate.

Power Infrastructure

The Sandow Lakes power infrastructure framework operates across multiple coordinated tiers with substrate scaling toward gigawatt capacity that exceeds peer Texas industrial substrates at comparable scale. The site has approximately 1.5 GW of existing ERCOT-connected capacity today, anchored by the legacy Alcoa electrical backbone that powered the aluminum smelter operations. An additional 1.2 GW Oncor transmission substation was expected to deliver capacity during Q3 2025, with additional substations planned to reach approximately 3.9 GW by 2028. JLL characterizes the resulting capacity as "the largest amount of readily available power in the United States" — a structural distinctiveness claim that, if validated through subsequent operator deployment, positions Sandow Lakes as one of the most distinctive US industrial substrates from a power-availability perspective.

Capital Reality and Operator Framework

The Sandow Lakes capital framework operates across multiple coordinated tiers across the multi-decade execution window. The November 2021 land acquisition by SLR Property I, LP for approximately $240 million established the foundational capital substrate. Xebec secured a $475 million capital commitment from BentallGreenOak (a Canada-based real estate investor) in 2021 supporting the broader development capital framework. The Sandow Municipal Utility District No. 1 (Sandow MUD #1, established by Texas Legislature 2023) provides tax-exempt bond financing for water, sewer, plus road infrastructure — distinct from operator framework requiring city annexation that peer Texas industrial substrates depend on. Xebec is additionally pursuing a $295 million Texas Energy Fund application supporting the broader power infrastructure framework. State and federal incentives (including DOE loan programs plus IRA clean technology incentives) represent additional capital substrate pathways that the broader operator framework leverages.

T1 Energy / G2 Austin Anchor Tenant

Austin-based T1 Energy anchors the AMLC's first announced tenant deployment with the G2 Austin 5 GW solar cell manufacturing facility. T1 Energy executed a lease and purchase option for 100 acres at AMLC announced March 2025, with the planned facility representing approximately $850 million in capital investment plus approximately 1,800 advanced manufacturing jobs. Production targets begin in the second half of 2026, aligned with AMLC's broader Q3 2026 first-occupancy framework.

The T1 Energy operator framework reflects the company's broader strategic repositioning toward becoming a vertically-integrated US solar plus battery storage leader. T1 acquired Trina Solar's US manufacturing assets in November 2024 for $621 million, including a 5 GW, 1.35 million square foot solar module manufacturing facility in Wilmer, Texas (subsequently named G1 Dallas). G1 Dallas's production ramp through January-February 2025 exceeded the company's initial plan by 48 percent, with module manufacturing surpassing 220 MW across the two months. T1's three Texas facilities (G1 Dallas, G2 Austin at Sandow Lakes, plus the Austin global corporate headquarters) collectively represent more than $1.1 billion in combined investment plus more than 3,000 direct jobs across the broader Texas Triangle. G2 Austin specifically will produce advanced TOPCon (Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact) solar cells, addressing what T1 characterizes as "a critically underserved leg of the solar manufacturing supply chain in the United States."

Convergence Position

The Sandow Lakes substrate operates at a structurally distinctive convergence position within multiple Texas industrial-and-energy frameworks. The site's specific position 15 miles east of Taylor places it within the broader Samsung Oncor Effect substrate (the post-Samsung-Taylor Oncor transmission infrastructure scaling that benefits the broader region) plus the broader US Hwy 79 corridor. Combined Sandow Lakes plus the broader Williamson County data center concentration (Skybox/Prologis Hutto, Samsung Taylor) plus the Brazos Valley Semiconductor Concentration plus the Terafab Production Facility at Gibbons Creek positions the broader US 79 corridor as one of the most concentrated US AI-Industrial buildouts at sub-corridor scale.

The convergence with the broader Texas semiconductor-and-AI substrate operates through multiple pathways. The T1 Energy G2 Austin solar cell deployment establishes Sandow Lakes as one of the structurally distinctive US solar manufacturing substrates supporting the broader US energy independence framework. The site's 3.9 GW projected power capacity by 2028 supports prospective operator deployment across data centers, additional manufacturing operators, plus broader industrial users. The mixed-use master plan supports broader Texas Triangle workforce-and-residential development beyond the immediate industrial substrate. Combined with the broader Texas Triangle (covered at Texas Triangle Cluster) plus the Texas Nexus framework, Sandow Lakes positions as one of the structurally distinctive emerging US industrial megasite operations supporting AI-Industrial buildout integration.

Permitting and Community Context

The Sandow Lakes regulatory framework progresses across multiple coordinated tracks at the multi-county-and-state-level scale. Sandow Municipal Utility District No. 1 (established by Texas Legislature 2023) provides the foundational regulatory framework for water, sewer, plus road infrastructure, anchored by tax-exempt bond financing without requiring city annexation. The MUD framework operates as a structurally distinctive advantage versus peer Texas industrial substrates — the broader municipal-and-county coordination operates without the broader annexation framework friction that peer substrates experience. Milam County and Lee County coordinate regulatory framework progression across the broader Sandow Lakes footprint. Milam County Judge Bill Whitmire anchors the local regulatory framework, with Milam County Commissioners' April 2025 unanimous approval of T1 Energy's tax abatement package establishing the operator-and-county coordination framework precedent.

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