Along the south shore of Lady Bird Lake east of Interstate 35, Oracle has built a new campus that will eventually house 10,000 employees.

At the end of 2015, one of the world’s largest software companies announced it was expanding in Austin with the construction of a 565,000-square-foot campus located on South Lakeshore Boulevard just west of South Pleasant Valley Road, that sits on 40 acres of waterfront property.

On Thursday, Oracle’s co-founder and the world’s fifth-wealthiest person in the world, Larry Ellison, was on hand at the campus for its official ribbon cutting. The company says it took approximately six years to get to where it is today in Austin. 

For Ellison, being in Austin meant being in the urban core and next to water–which Ellison has an affinity for.

“We wanted to be in downtown Austin on the river and specifically I wanted to be in downtown Austin on the river because I thought it would be great to take my kayak out on the river at lunchtime. This is the kind of place I’d like to work,” says Ellison. 

Being this is Texas, Ellison didn’t even flinch at the real estate cost of purchasing prime property in Austin. He said he purchased as much property he could in the span of 30 minutes.

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“This is Texas, the prices here are like free,” Ellison jokes. “Believe me, you buy one home in California — Mark’s [Hurd, Oracle’s CEO] home actually costs about the same as this in California.” 

Ellison says the 40-acre campus could continue to grow as the company grows. 

“We think this is a phenomenal facility to house fantastic people that hopefully will come to Oracle — whether they’re experienced or right out of college — and be able to develop their careers, learn new technologies and grow as the company grows.”

With a growing population in Texas, and Austin dubbed the Silicon Valley of the South, Ellison says the capital city was the best choice for expansion.

“Austin is one of the key places we want to be because we think that’s where our people want to be. And we want to develop the kind of facilities where you feel good about coming to work every day.”

The company is also building a hub in Santa Monica, Calif. and currently has a hub in Boston along with their headquarters in the Bay Area.

For the past several years, Oracle has leased property off North MoPac near US 183 and off of West Parmer Lane, near the Apple campus. Most of the jobs at this new campus will be in the company’s cloud sales organization, Oracle Direct.