Category: Central/South Texas

Austin outranks major West Coast city in new projection of office job growth

Posted on by Sarah

It’s Bat City versus the City by the Bay in a new projection for the growth of office jobs in 2020. Commercial real estate services company CBRE predicts Austin will see a 2.6 percent rise in office jobs this year compared with last year. That puts Austin in first place for anticipated office-job growth in 2020 among U.S. markets with at least 37.5 million square feet of office space. Office jobs include those in the tech, professional services, and legal sectors. Austin edges out San Francisco for the top spot in CBRE’s forecast, published January 9. The company predicts a 2.5 percent increase in San Francisco office jobs this year versus last year. Personal finance website WalletHub recently ranked San Francisco and Austin third and fourth, respectively, on its list of the U.S. best cities to find a job. “It’s not surprising that the forecast for Austin is extremely bright, and we expect that technology companies and professional firms will still drive the demand for more [offices],” Troy Holme, executive vice president in the Austin office of CBRE, says in a January 22 release. Click to read more at www.austinculturemap.com.

McAllen On The Move

Posted on by Sarah

A powerhouse city. Boomtown. The epicenter of the Rio Grande Valley. There are plenty of ways to describe McAllen, Texas, but they all have one
thing in common: growth. “With the volume of consumers that comes in to
McAllen daily, our city has developed a robust economy,” says Rebecca Olaguibel, the city’s Director of Retail and Business Development. The numbers are incredible for a city its size. With a population of around 140,000, McAllen generates more than $3 billion in gross retail sales thanks to 18 million people (an average of 39,000 people per day) who visit the city every year. It’s just 10 miles north of the Mexican border, so international visitors flow through it via McAllen International Airport and the two international bridges managed by the city. “It’s truly a geographic jackpot,” says Olaguibel, who has worked for the City of McAllen for 12 years. Its retail offerings are part of the draw of McAllen, making it the premiere shopping destination in South Texas and northern Mexico. While new
shopping centers and big box retailers open up new locations there, city leaders say it’s important to recognize the critical role small businesses play in the overall success of McAllen. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

City Council Will Hear Thoughts From Residents On Comprehensive Revision To Land Use Rules At Weekend Hearing

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Austin City Council is scheduled to cast its first vote on the latest draft of a comprehensive revision of its land use rules and zoning maps Dec. 9. Ahead of the vote, elected officials are holding a public testimony over the weekend for anyone to weigh in on the changes. The city’s land development code governs which and how structures can be built in the city, and the accompanying zoning maps dictate where specific development can occur. Significant makeovers to both pieces have been proposed in response to Austin’s rapid growth and will directly impact the physical character of Austin for years to come. The hearing, scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at Austin City Hall, is the second such weekend public hearing on the land use code rewritten this fall. The Austin Planning Commission held a similar hearing in October ahead of its own vote on the revision. The window to sign up to speak will be open between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Speakers will get 2 minutes to speak to City Council. Saturday’s hearing marks the home stretch of the revision effort that extends back to 2012 and has directly cost taxpayers more than $8.5 million in costs associated with the rewrite. Click to read more at www.communityimpact.com.

Apple Starts Construction On $1B Austin, Texas Campus

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Dive Brief:
Apple has started construction on a new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, the company announced this week. The facility is located near its Mac Pro facility, which began producing the firm’s latest top-of-the-line computer this month. The general contractor of the project has not been publicly identified. The 3-million-square-foot development, which is slated to be completed sometime in 2022, will be able to accommodate 5,000 employees at first, but Apple’s plan includes an eventual 15,000. Apple will power the buildings with solar power generated on-site, and the 133-acre campus will feature a 50-acre nature preserve, which will help the company achieve a total of 60% green space. The Austin campus is part of the company’s commitment to make $30 billion of capital investments in the U.S. from 2018 to 2023. During a press conference earlier this year, Kristina Raspe, vice president of global real estate and facilities for Apple, said that construction of the first building should take between 30 and 36 months.​ Click to read more at www.constructiondive.com.

City To Work With Capital Metro On Financing New Broadmoor And McKalla Place Rail Stations As Development Boom Looms

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The city of Austin expects the areas around the Broadmoor Campus and McKalla Place—the site of the new Austin FC stadium—to be primed for dramatic increases in development and subsequently heightened demand for transportation. City Council acknowledged that looming boom Nov. 14 when it directed City Manager Spencer Cronk to work with the city’s public transportation authority, Capital Metro, to help finance the completion of new rail stations in the two areas. Last year, City Council greenlit the first phase of a massive, 20-year, phased mixed-use development at the 66-acre Broadmoor Campus, an area currently occupied by the IBM campus. Plans for the area include at least 2,000 housing units and buildings reaching 360 feet tall. The area has been referred to as Austin’s future second downtown. The developers agreed to help relocate the Kramer Lane MetroRail station to the Broadmoor Campus. Click to read more at www.communityimpact.com.

Montrose’s ‘Cool’ Attracts National Real Estate Attention

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When the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield looked across the United States and Canada for the “coolest” neighborhoods, Montrose made the top 20. That, says Cushman & Wakefield, makes it prime property. For Houstonians, the announcement may feel obvious. Certainly it’s not news that Montrose is cool? Bob Marley and the Wailers took over a floor of the Plaza Hotel (later Tradition Bank Plaza) in the ’70s, cooking Rasta gumbo as the magazine Texas Monthly got its start in the same building. It was, and still is, Houston’s haven and political center for the LGBTQ community. Beyoncé went to high school there. But for Cushman & Wakefield, the neighborhood’s culture and walkability is of special appeal as retail fights e-commerce to bring customers into stores. “Ignore cool at your own peril,” wrote Cushman & Wakefield when it first started scouting cool neighborhoods in 2016. Click to read more at www.mysanantonio.com.