[4] It was developed by Cousins Properties from November 2001 to December 2003 as a class A office building with 525,000 sq ft (48,774 m2) of leasable space.

[7] Tenants in the building besides Frost Bank include the Austin offices of Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, and PIMCO.

[9]: D1 [10] Development of the site was complicated by the lease on the museum and municipal limits on building heights to preserve views of the Texas State Capitol.

[11] Block 42 Congress Partners acquired all of the land required for the project by August 1999,[8] but ultimately sold the 1.7-acre (0.69 ha) lot to Cousins Properties in January 2001 for $13.8 million.

[7] In March 2003, Frost Bank announced plans to move its downtown Austin operations into the skyscraper, signing a lease for 52,000 sq ft (4,800 m2) of office space and becoming the building's lead tenant; in response, Cousins Properties renamed the building after the bank.

[26][27][28] After Austin's skyscraper construction boom, which began in 2007, Frost Bank Tower was soon surpassed in height by the 360 Condominiums at 581 ft (177 m) in 2008.

[29][30] Currently, there are many notable tenants in the building, including Frost Bank, Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, PIMCO, UTIMCO, and Heritage Title Co.[31][32][33][34] Designed by Duda/Paine Architects, LLP with HKS, Inc. as the Architect of Record, the Frost Bank Tower is considered one of the most recognizable buildings in Austin.

The Frost Bank Tower is one of only two places in the world with blue low-e glass skin, the other being the Reuters Building in New York City, which was the earlier structure.

[38] Austin American-Statesman columnist John Kelso compared the building's crown to an enormous set of nose hair trimmers.

"[38] Austin Chronicle readers voted the Frost Bank Tower as the "Best New Building (Past Five Years)" in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

[40][41][42][43][44] The newspaper also said that the "owl face of the Frost Bank Tower" helps keep Austin "characteristically weird".

Such amenities in the building include conference facilities, building concierge, 24-hour cardkey access, fully equipped fitness center, state-of-the-art telecommunication systems, tenant controlled HVAC, upscale restaurants, deli/carry-out restaurants, a coffee shop, and a dry-cleaner.