Over the past twenty years, Austin’s population has exploded, growing more than 78 percent, with the MSA adding the equivalent of two Omahas in that time span. Concurrently, office development and investment just barely kept pace with staggering demand—a two-decade-long trend that skidded to a halt in March of this year. At the opening of 2020, Austin’s office market picked up right where 2019 left off, with strong leasing activity and an incredible development pipeline. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has hit pause on much of this—leaving many to wonder how long until the city can get back to where it was. “Austin has traditionally been such as a very strong, robust real estate market. We’re confident it is going to find its way back, just as it did before with ’08 – ‘09,” said Ross Anders, general manager of Project Management Advisors (PMA) in Austin. PMA recently expanded its footprint to Austin with the acquisition of American Realty Project Management. With a technology-heavy corporate base, the good news is that Austin will likely start to recover quicker than the more energy-dependent Houston and Dallas markets, for example, as the price of oil falls. According to Andrew Alizzi, associate in the capital markets group, investment sales in the Austin office of Avison Young, many of the landlords he has been in contact with are surveying tenants in their buildings to determine not only their immediate needs but if they anticipate any retrenchment of their future office us. Click to read more at www.rednews.com. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.