Category: News & Market Reports

Austin Council Signs Off on Project Connect ‘Rules of the Rails’

Posted on by Sarah

After a week’s delay and extended deliberation on the dais, Austin City Council approved an updated version of the document setting the responsibilities for Project Connect’s development.

The joint powers agreement involves three Project Connect stakeholders: the city of Austin, Capital Metro, and the Austin Transit Partnership, or ATP. Sam Sargent, ATP director of strategy, said last week that the document represents the “rules of the rails” for the $7.1 billion transit expansion.

The three entities gathered last week at the Austin Convention Center to hammer out the final agreement but were forced to delay due to technical difficulties. Council took up its approval of the document, and several members’ revisions to the plan, Nov. 4.

In addition to detailing the roles of the ATP, Capital Metro and city officials and staff, portions of the document also tie to equity, land use and community engagement as the expansive transit project moves ahead. Several edits to the agreement approved by council this week also reflect commentary from residents and mobility groups that had previously expressed reservations. Click to read more at www.communityimpact.com.

Walker & Dunlop Completes Sale of Multifamily Community at the Texas Medical Center

Posted on by Sarah

WALKER & DUNLOP COMPLETES SALE OF GARDEN-STYLE MULTIFAMILY COMMUNITY AT THE TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it completed the sale of The Co-Op at the Med Center, a 200-unit, garden-style property located in the heart of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Originally built as a hotel, the asset was converted into a multifamily community in 2018 following a significant capital investment into the property.

Walker & Dunlop’s Scott Bray, Ryan Epstein, and Jennifer Ray represented the seller, Urban Genesis, in the transaction. The buyer, EAS Houston LLC, plans to capitalize on The Co-Op at the Med Center’s significant value-add potential with a number of upgrades, including interior unit renovations, upgrades to community amenities, and the addition of a technology package.

The Co-Op at the Med Center is one of the only garden-style multifamily properties in the immediate area, which is surrounded by newer construction, Class A communities. The property’s unparalleled location provides immediate access to the Texas Medical Center, one of Houston’s largest and most consistent employment bases, with over 106,000 employees and hosting 10 million patients. Residents of The Co-Op at the Med Center also enjoy convenient access to several grocery stores and are within minutes of Houston’sHermann Park.

Austin Nails Ranking as One of Nation’s Top Commercial Real Estate Markets

Posted on by Sarah

Unless you’ve been living way off the grid the past couple of years, you’re fully aware that Austin ranks among the hottest residential real estate markets in the U.S. What you may not realize, though, is that it’s also among the country’s hottest commercial real estate markets.

In a recently released report, the National Association of Realtors identifies Austin as one of the top 10 commercial real estate markets in the U.S. San Antonio is the only other Texas market to appear on the unranked list.

Austin’s commercial real estate sector has benefited from an influx of companies, particularly in the tech industry, that are moving out of California. Among the relocating businesses are Cangshan Cutlery, F45 Training, Green Dot, and Markaaz.

Factors in Austin’s favor that the report outlines include:

  • Office occupancy has grown, rather than shrunk, in the past 12 months. Across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic has hammered the office sector, with millions of Americans telecommuting rather than heading to a workplace.
  • In the multifamily segment (part of the commercial real estate sector), Austin enjoys one of the most robust levels of construction activity in the country.
  • Advertised rents at multifamily properties are up 21.2 percent on a year-over-year basis. Click to read more at www.austin.culturemap.com

What Does ESG Mean For Developers?

Posted on by Sarah

Here it goes: The real estate industry is one of the top industries to blame for climate change and its mounting toll worldwide.

No matter your political bent or views on climate change, in the real estate business, the environment is about to become much more important to your bottom line.

The conclusion here about climate change isn’t a conspiracy theory or an attempt to shame developers. Rather, it is the consensus of more than 2,000 top real estate minds across North America expressed in the 2022 version of the Emerging Trends in Real Estate report.

Published annually by the Urban Land Institute (“ULI”) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, Emerging Trends is a comprehensive forecast for the real estate market and offers predictions about the forces experts say will drive development in the year ahead.

This latest report details COVID-19’s impacts on remote work and living arrangements, how cities are evolving, technology’s influence on the real estate market, and the financial implications of everything from job and income growth to interest rates and inflation. Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.

CONTI Capital Launches $150M Real Estate Fund

Posted on by Sarah

DALLAS, Nov. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — CONTI Capital, a real estate investment company with over $1.25B in transactions, has launched its fourth investment fund to raise $150 million for the acquisition of multifamily properties and the development of new vertical and horizontal rental housing.

CONTI’s RE High-Growth Fund IV offers accredited investors, wealth managers, and institutions the opportunity to diversify capital across a mix of multifamily assets and geographic markets. The Fund will seek a target return of 10-14% ROI with a 3–5-year hold period and is structured as a private offering for accredited investors under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D.

“The flexibility and diversity of our High-Growth Fund IV takes advantage of a range of both established and new multifamily properties,” says Carlos Vaz, founder and CEO of CONTI. “This approach allows us to adjust asset allocations as market conditions change, actively manage performance, and offer risk-adjusted returns for investors.” Click to read more at www.inforny.com.

Today’s Commercial Finance Market: My Father and Grandfather Would Not Recognize It!

Posted on by Sarah

I have the unique privilege of being a third-generation banker. My grandfather started and ran a small savings and loan (“S&L”) in the western suburbs of Chicago. My father followed him into the S&L business and there were days when I would join him at work, handing out toasters and other gifts to those that opened new accounts. Occasionally, we’d go to homes with a rolling measuring tape to measure and appraise the land and house that the S&L provided a mortgage against. Companies in those days also got most of their financing from banks.

I have worked with many financial institutions during my career (at three leading banks) and have learned much over my decades helping companies refine strategy, raise capital, and think about how best to navigate their opportunities and challenges. One dominant theme that I have observed, and that has accelerated over the past decade and in particular over the past 24 months, has been in the “democratization of finance,” or DEFI. Click to read more at www.abladvisor.com.