Intel close to clearing Austin 'eyesore'

Intel has at last sold off what remains of its unfinished Austin, Texas chip design centre, three years after abandoning work on the project.

According to an Austin Statesman report (registration required), local real estate company Endeavor has been talking to Intel and is close to completing a purchase.

Intel began work on the facility, in downtown Austin on Fifth and San Antonio, in the late 1990s. The site was to house workers currently operating out of leased offices elsewhere in the city.

However, the chip giant halted work on the $124m project in March 2001. It blamed the dotcom bust and the subsequent collapse of the hi-tech market. The unfinished work left nothing but rubble and the skeleton of a building on the site, dubbed by locals an "eyesore".

You can see a shot of how work was left here, courtesy of the Austin Chronicle.

In April 2002, the chip giant said it would sell off the land. A large portion was acquired last year by the US General Services Administration, which plans to build a $75.9m federal courthouse on the site next year.

If the latest sale goes ahead, Endeavor plans to eventually develop the site for mixed residential, retail or business use, the report states. The area under negotiation was originally to have housed a car park for workers at the design center. ®