The Texas Municipal League is leaving Austin after three decades for a new headquarters in Georgetown, marking a major civic win for the fast-growing suburb’s historic downtown.
The league and its affiliated entities will “invest millions” to renovate the four-story, 64,000-square-foot Wesleyan Building at 205 East University Avenue, just east of the town square, Georgetown Mayor Joshua Schroeder said.
The Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool will acquire and redevelop the mid-century property — also known as the Georgetonian — into the Texas Municipal Center, the Austin Business Journal reported. Georgetown is about 30 miles north of Austin.
The move ends a months-long site search that included several Austin-area options. The league and the risk pool, which together employ about 250 people, have long shared space at 1821 Rutherford Lane in northeast Austin.
The organizations said their aging facility no longer fits a workforce that now operates mostly remote, leaving excess space, outdated systems and underused offices. The Georgetown site, by contrast, will be redesigned with flexible layouts, wellness features and upgraded technology.
Board chair Bert Lumbreras said in a statement that the decision to house the center in Georgetown reinforced the league’s commitment to serving member cities for decades to come.
The risk pool, which plans to renovate and modernize the Wesleyan Building, is working through zoning updates and community engagement before beginning construction.
Completion and move-in are slated for 2029. Built in the 1960s by a Methodist Church affiliate as an independent living facility, the building later served as general offices under owner McIntosh Holdings, which had weighed converting it into condos before this deal emerged.
No financial incentives are being offered for the relocation, though Schroeder said the city and the league are discussing a partnership on a new downtown parking garage and event space to support both local needs and visiting officials.
The structure would rise on a city lot between Ninth and Tenth streets and include the first phase of Georgetown’s planned Ninth Street Art Walk.
The Texas Municipal League, a nonprofit advocacy group representing more than 1,100 cities statewide, and its sister entity, the Intergovernmental Risk Pool, which provides insurance and loss prevention services, have shared the Austin campus since the 1990s.
The move comes as Southwestern University embarks on a massive development just east of its campus.
The 185-year-old liberal arts college is planning a mixed-use district called Southwestern University 560, envisioned as a “mini city” with housing, offices, retail, restaurants, a boutique hotel, cultural spaces and a concert venue. The City of Georgetown agreed to build a service center there for 275 city employees as well.
Other projects coming to Georgetown include Dallas-based Columnar Investments’ $100 million mixed-use project called Heirloom in Georgetown, a 620-acre development pitched as something that would create a second Main Street.
Plans include up to 3,600 residential units, 48 acres of parkland, and at least 200,000 square feet of commercial space. The project will feature a walkable retail district designed to mirror Georgetown’s existing downtown square.
Georgetown has been the fastest-growing city of its size nationwide for three consecutive years.
— Eric Weilbacher
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