January 30, 2022

Austin Is ‘Hottest Job Market In The Country’ As Jobless Rate Drops Again

Austin American Statesman – 1/21/2022

The unemployment rate in the Austin area has slipped below 3% for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, coming in at 2.9% in December.  Economists called the sub-3% jobless rate the latest indication that the Austin area is booming and that local employers in many industries are hiring new workers as fast as they can find them.

More…

Austin Retail Regains 2019 Footing, Looks Even Stronger In Some Areas

ABJ  – 1/26/2022

The Austin retail sector continues to flourish as it recovers from the pandemic, with the occupancy rate hitting 96% in 2021 — the same level seen in 2019, according to a Weitzman Group Inc. report released earlier this month. Austin’s retail market has rebounded more than any other major Texas metro.

More…

Sabot Development Breaks Ground on East Austin Apartment Project

CoStar – 1/27/2022

A little more than two years after acquiring the site, Sabot Development is now underway on its new mixed-use project in East Austin, Texas, slated to bring another 364 apartments and 5,000 square feet of commercial space to the area.

The Austin-based real estate firm broke ground last week on the Goodwin Apartments, a project located about 3 miles from downtown and a short walk from local restaurants, bars and popular rock-climbing gym The Austin Bouldering Project at 3706 Goodwin Ave.  The company said in a release that 10% of the apartments have been earmarked as affordable housing.

More…

Tesla Plans To Start Shopping for New Factory Locations

CoStar – 1/26/2022

U.S. electric carmaker Tesla is working to add more factories as it increases production capacity at its new facilities in Austin, Texas, and in Berlin while grappling with supply chain constraints.

The Austin-based company, which moved its California headquarters to Central Texas in December, plans to grow its stable of new factory sites with “new locations in the future,” Tesla’s founder and CEO Elon Musk told investors during an earnings call Wednesday afternoon. Musk said he wasn’t ready to announce any locations on the call but said he could announce new locations toward the end of the year.

More…

Israeli Cybersecurity Startup Portnox Plants Global HQ In Austin

ABJ   – 1/28/2022

After closing a $22 million series A funding round led by an Austin-based venture capital firm, Israel-based endpoint security startup Portnox said it is putting its global headquarters in Austin. The headquarters, a 2,700-sq. ft. space at 5301 Southwest Pkwy, will initially house operations, sales, marketing and customer success teams. Portnox plans to double its headcount by the end of 2022.

More…

Kendra Scott Creating New Event Center At Dell Children’s, Donates $1 Million

Austin American Statesman   – 1/29/2022

Kendra Scott is giving $1 million to Dell Children’s Foundation’s “Here” fundraising campaign. In addition, Scott and her company will help create the Kendra Scott Child Life Event Center at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas. It will open this spring.

More…

Ronald Who? P. Terry’s Could Become More Prevalent Than Even Mcdonald’s Locally

ABJ    – 1/25/2022

What do Bastrop, East Austin and Cedar Park have in common? They have P. Terry’s Burger Stands openings in 2023, highlighting how the homegrown company is stretching into new territories. The burger chain’s plate is already full with seven back-to-back openings in the first half of this year between San Antonio and the Austin metro.

More…

Chinese Regulators OK AMD’s $45B Purchase Of Xilinx

ABJ  – 1/27/2022

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. may finally be nearing the completion of its long-in-the-works acquisition of Xilinx Inc., which designs chips known as filed programmable gate arrays that can be reconfigured by customers after purchase. Chinese regulators on Jan. 27 cleared the purchase, the companies announced in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

More…

Local Neighborhood Ranks Among Best-Selling In US

ABJ  – 1/24/2022

Santa Rita Ranch was one of the best-selling master-planned communities in the country in 2021, according to RCLCO. This demand, developers said, has caused the Williamson County community to ramp up development in 2022. Santa Rita came in at No. 38 with 515 sales, 9th-best in Texas and No. 1 in the Austin area.

More…

Austin’s SparkCognition Raises $123 Million, Tops $1 Billion In Value

Austin American Statesman   – 1/25/2022

SparkCognition — Austin’s latest “unicorn” company with a valuation of more than $1 billion — is kicking off a new wave of expansion that includes hiring dozens of workers.  The fast-growing artificial intelligence company said it has raised $123 million in its latest funding round and plans to add 150 employees this year.

More…

WeWork To Buy Common Desk

ABJ  – 1/25/2022

WeWork will have new locations in the Austin area after announcing it is acquiring another coworking space. Dallas-based Common Desk LLC, which has coworking locations at Sixth Street and Congress Avenue and on Anderson Lane, will be fully owned by New York-based WeWork Inc. after the deal. The two Common Desk locations in Austin are at 106 E. Sixth St., #900, and 2301 Anderson Lane.

More…

Funding Wrap: Routefusion Scores $10M; Pinwheel Has Very Busy Week

ABJ – 1/24/2022

‣  Austin financial-technology startup Routefusion Inc. announced a $10 million seed round led by San Francisco Bay Area firm Canvas Ventures and Austin’s Siliverton Partners.
‣  Children’s smart phone maker Pinwheel announced it lassoed $3.5 million in seed funding from Drumbeat Ventures,
‣ Telehealth startup Wheel said it raised a $150 million series C round.

More…

Cedar Park May Get More Senior Housing

ABJ – 1/26/2022

Austin-based Periscope Capital Investments LLC is working to build a dense senior housing community in Cedar Park, hoping to add housing options for a rapidly growing aging population in Central Texas.  The Cedar Park Planning and Zoning Commission gave the OK this month to rezone approximately seven acres for mixed use.

The proposed development, Hayden Grove of Cedar Park, would be located at 400 W. Park St. Developers propose a multi-story building, as high as 50 feet tall, with 28,700 square feet of retail space. There will be up to 178 housing units, a mix of memory care, independent and assisted-living units.

More…

Texas Hits Record Job Level In December

Recon  – 1/24/2022

Texas added 50,000 nonfarm jobs in December, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. The state has added 694,400 jobs since December 2020.

With the jobs added last month, Texas hit a record-high employment level at nearly 13.06 million jobs, surpassing February 2020’s pre-pandemic record.  The state’s job market increased 0.4% over the month, surpassing the Texas Real Estate Research Center’s forecasted growth rate of 0.2%. Texas’ labor market is recovering faster than the nation’s job market, which grew 0.1% over the month.

More…

Taylor Has Annexed 1,200-Plus Acres For Samsung Site

ABJ  – 1/24/2022

The massive plot of land in Taylor that is set to become Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s $17 billion chipmaking plant is now officially inside city limits, potentially adding more than $50 million to the city’s general fund over the next three decades.

Taylor City Council unanimously approved the annexation and established the base zoning for the 1,268-acre plot near the former intersection of County Roads 401 and 404.  Construction on the facility will start early this year, and Samsung expects to commence operations by the second half of 2024.

More…

Food, Fun, And Fútbol: Entertainment District Coming To Austin

Recon  – 1/26/2022

Karlin Real Estate LLC is developing The Pitch, a sports and entertainment complex at 13000 Harris Ridge Blvd.  The venue, within the 50-acre Parmer Pond District, will include food and beverage offerings, a 1,200-seat stadium, artificial soccer pitch, and five-acre pond.  Opening is set for February.

More…

Texas’ Booming Population Leads Healthcare Systems To Add More Hospitals

CoStar  – 1/27/2022

Half a dozen new major hospitals are in the works in Texas, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate investment and development as healthcare providers try to keep up with the state’s growing population.

HCA Healthcare, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is planning to build five hospitals, including two in the Austin area, and one each in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Separately, Methodist Health System announced plans this week to build a $200 million hospital in Celina, a suburb about 41 miles north of downtown Dallas.

More…

Venture Buys New Two-Building Office Complex in East Austin

CoStar  – 1/27/2022

A new two-building office complex that scored one of the top leases of the third quarter in Austin, Texas, has sold. An affiliate of Walton Street Capital acquired the Eastlake at Tillery campus in East Austin through a new partnership with local firm and the project’s developer, Cypress Real Estate Advisors. Completed last year, the three-story buildings total 176,696 square feet just east of downtown at 3212 E. Cesar Chavez St. and are 77% leased to two tenants.

More…

Huge Austin-Area Ranch Hopes To Rope In New Owner At $36.7 Million

ABJ  – 1/28/2022

One of the biggest chunks of undeveloped land in the Austin metro area just went on the market at an asking price of more than $36.7 million.

Pecan Ranch encompasses 1,469 acres in Williamson County, between Florence and Jarrell.  Under new ownership, the ranch could turn into anything from a master-planned community to a private retreat.  Pecan Ranch holds appeal for real estate developers, in part, because it offers more than 2,500 of frontage on both sides of County Road 232. The ranch sits roughly midway between SH 195 to the west and I-35 to the east.

More…

Council To Decide On Redevelopment Of Historic Austin Opera House For Venue, Housing Project Jan. 27

Community Impact  – 1/25/2022

Plans to transform the offices, recording studio and parking lot at 200 Academy Drive into a restored music venue and housing development could get the go-ahead from city officials Jan. 27.

200 Academy is home to the historic Austin Opera House formerly owned by Willie Nelson and credited as a foundational space in Austin’s live music scene by architect Richard Weiss. A proposal from Spearhead Academy and Weiss Architecture would see 17,500 square feet of the decadesold music hall reopened as a live music venue alongside a 150- to 200-unit housing project located one block off South Congress Avenue.

More…

Floridays Development to Build 276-Room Hotel in East Austin

REBusiness  – 1/27/2022

Sarasota, Fla.-based Floridays Development will build a 276-room hotel in East Austin. Designed by FK Architecture, the project will include a pool and an 89,123-square-foot parking garage.  A tentative construction completion date was not released, but demolition work on the site’s existing structures is underway.

More…