Wildflowers grow along the banks of the Colorado River just off Hergotz Lane on May 27, 2026. Highway 183 is seen in the background. The Dog's Head development is proposed along this stretch of the river. BRIAN DIGGS FOR AUSTIN CURRENT
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The identity of the Fortune 100 company that has quietly driven the city’s push to fast-track approvals for the Dog’s Head development is finally public: Amazon. 

Austin Assistant City Manager Eric Johnson revealed at the City Council’s work session Tuesday that Amazon’s robotics division is the anchor tenant Dog’s Head developers have been trying to lure to the proposed 2,600-acre, mixed-use project in Southeast Austin. 

Johnson has underscored for months that the city’s ability to land the company depended on moving quickly through the approval process.

When it comes to luring business to Austin, he told council members, the city needs a “transformative, catalytic project” to show off.

“If you are to do true economic development, you need to lead with a signal,” he said. “This is a signal that is saying we are serious about economic development.”

Amazon confirmed the announcement, saying the company would bring hundreds of jobs to Austin.

“Austin and Texas are great locations to do business, which is evidenced by the over 86,000 jobs and $100 billion in investments we’ve made across the Lone Star state,”  said Holly Sullivan, Amazon’s  vice president of worldwide economic development. “If we move forward on with the project, we plan to create approximately 300-500 jobs and we look forward to working with the community, the County, and Council on this innovative project.”

The urgency to lock down Amazon shaped the city’s handling of Dog’s Head. Residents and environmentalists found out about the project just days before the City Council annexed the Southeast Austin land in late May. The city also signed off on a 45-year, wide-ranging agreement that allows the developer, Endeavor, to build almost anything. 

Until Tuesday, the city and Endeavor had refused to name Amazon publicly due to confidentiality agreements. The disclosure answers a question that has lingered for months as residents and environmental advocates criticized the city for accelerating approvals without fully explaining what was driving the urgency. 

Endeavor’s attorney, Richard Suttle, has publicly said the company was in advanced manufacturing. In May, he told the City Council, “It’s a use that I think you’d be OK with, that I think you’d like.”

While city staffers may like Amazon for Dog’s Head, some opponents of the development balked at the prospect.

“I think it’s so tone deaf and out of touch that the city thought the people of Austin would be excited about a 300-acre Amazon facility,” Cameron Shaw, an East Austin resident, told the Current after speaking against the project at the Tuesday meeting. “Big business paving over ecologically important areas seems to be par for course, and it’s tragic for Austin.”

Susana Almanza, an environmental activist with PODER, told the Current the Amazon announcement leads to even more questions about the project.

“What will be the water use?” she said. “What will be the water discharge? What will be the energy that they’ll be using? What are all the safeguards to protect the workers? What are the releases of pollution in the area?”

Dog’s Head is a four-square-mile proposed mixed-used development that could bring thousands of houses, businesses, industrial plants and even data centers to the site. Residents and environmentalists have protested the project, saying the city is moving too fast and regulating the development too loosely.

Austin leaders say Dog’s Head is a once-in-a-generation financial opportunity for a city facing financial struggles because of a state cap on property taxes and the loss of federal Covid-era funding. If fully developed, Dog’s Head could generate $3.5 billion in property taxes for the city over the next 30 years, city leaders say. 

Dog’s Head won’t move forward unless the City Council approves a tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, a financing tool. Under a TIRZ, Endeavor would build infrastructure, such as water and sewer lines. The city would reimburse much of that cost over time using the new property tax revenue generated within Dog’s Head. The council is expected to vote on that plan at its Thursday meeting.

Endeavor’s plans for Dog’s Head include:

  • 6,195 single-family homes
  • 6,200 multifamily units
  • 4 million square feet of industrial space
  • 2.5 million square feet of retail space
  • 1.5 million square feet of office space
  • 1 million square feet of hospitality space.

The development would be built out between 2030 to 2057.

Andrea Ball is Austin Current's growth/development reporter. Before joining Austin Current, Ball worked as an investigative reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, USA Today and the Houston Chronicle.