Your Marketing Source For Texas Commercial Real Estate Reaching 100,000+ QUALIFIED Commercial Real Estate Brokers, Investors, Developers & Commercial Service Providers
Aprio has named Nuwandi Trahan Partner and Southwest Real Estate Leader. She brings more than 18 years of experience in real estate audit and advisory, with a focus on multifamily housing, LIHTC, HUD compliance, and financial reporting. Trahan previously helped launch and grow affordable housing practices at a global firm and serves as a founding advisory board member of the Women’s Affordable Housing Network (Texas Chapter).
Brenda Studt has joined Opus as director of real estate development. In this role, Brenda is responsible for helping Opus establish a strong Austin presence by sourcing and pursuing industrial and multifamily development opportunities. Brenda has more than 20 years of industry experience and is credited with developing over 850,000 square feet of industrial real estate and over 500 multifamily units in the last five years.
Anyone who talks to Gina can quickly hear she is a Texan. After graduating from the University of North Texas with a BBA in Risk Management and Insurance, she has spent the last 30 plus years in commercial property & casualty insurance and has earned the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) and Construction Risk Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designations. Education, technology, and efficiency are natural strengths which made her working on the operations a natural fit.
Gina joined Patterson & Associates Insurance in 2023 as the Commercial Insurance Department Manager and has now recently been promoted to Agency Operations and Department Manager.
She is involved with the Independent Insurance Agents of Dallas (IIAD) where she serves on the All-Industry Day committee and has led other insurance groups and committees throughout her years in the insurance business.
Dunaway is pleased to welcome Shannon C. Bearden to our Fort Worth team. Shannon joins as a Vice President and Associate Principal, bringing over 20 years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams. In her role, she will help to oversee the successful delivery of large-scale projects while serving as a strategic partner to key clients. Shannon will leverage her architectural background, collaborating with leadership and cross-functional teams, to ensure design excellence across disciplines.
Panattoni Development Company, one of the largest privately held, full-service development companies in the world, is pleased to announce that John Wilcox has been named Partner in Dallas.
Wilcox joins Panattoni with over 22 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry. As Partner, he will lead the region’s development team and be responsible for oversight and execution of all aspects of development including origination, design, entitlement, construction, leasing and disposition.
Prior to joining Panattoni in 2025 Wilcox has spent 19 years working with CBRE. During his tenure at CBRE he handled acquisitions and dispositions of investment properties worth over $4.2 billion in 45 different states. He was involved with the acquisition of over 585,000 acres of land in fee title and/or conservation easements with an aggregate value of over $2.18 billion creating joint ventures between Federal, State, non-profits, and local government.
Life science leaders are recognizing that laboratory design and infrastructure can be a secret weapon in enabling innovation—capable of responding to rapidly advancing research demands, technological innovation, and shifting workforce expectations, according to a new Unispace Life Sciences survey report on lab design development.
The survey, fielded in May 2025, explored the perspectives of 400 senior and mid-level decision-makers across the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland, Switzerland, and India, spanning biotechnology, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and medical technology.
Perceptions of how current lab environments enable innovation are markedly positive among U.S. life science executives compared to their global peers—they have a strong sense of confidence in the capability and resilience of U.S. lab workspaces, particularly in terms of its adaptability for growth (67%) and integration of new technologies (63%).
U.S. labs are also more likely to cite “flexible, modular spaces” as a key driver shaping lab design—61% of US executives identify this as a critical driver compared to 53% of their global counterparts.
Despite this positive sentiment, the U.S. sector faces headwinds in terms of future capital planning. More than half (52%) of executives in this region express apprehension that there will be a return on investment when deciding to fund new life sciences facilities.
“U.S. life science executives believe they have the winning formula when it comes to designing labs that will support their organization’s speed-to-market goals,” said Alicia Inman, Principal, Life Sciences, Americas. “However, the bigger challenge is making the upfront investment in the new facility itself due to the current economic climate,” she said.
Designed to Spark Innovation
To enable innovation, respondents cited the following three features as the most important in a life sciences workplace:
In addition to enabling innovation, respondents cited “embedding sustainability” as one of the top factors informing their lab workplace design strategy, driven by mounting regulatory pressures, investor demands, and internal commitments to climate goals. Leaders flagged issues such as emissions control, hazardous and biowaste disposal, and overall environmental compliance as pain points that must be addressed early in lab planning.
“It’s now table-stakes for labs to incorporate eco-friendly construction materials, smart lighting, energy-efficient HVAC systems, and innovative waste and water management strategies in any new build,” said Inman.
About Unispace Life Sciences
Unispace Life Sciences, part of Unispace Group, creates future-ready environments for the world’s most innovative science-led organizations. With deep sector expertise and a science‑first mindset, we deliver strategy, design, and construction solutions for laboratory and workplace environments across biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical technology, and healthcare industries.