CAPELLA   AUSTIN  NEWSLETTER

April 3, 2022

Austin Moves Up A Spot To No. 2 On Prestigious Best Performing Cities List

ABJ – 3/28/2022

Austin again was ranked high on a prestigious list, coming in 2nd on the Milken Institute’s 2022 Best-Performing Cities list. The city moved up a spot in the large city rankings after finishing in the No. 3 spot each of the previous three years. Austin has been a magnet for a number of large tech companies in the last year.  Samsung, Dell, Amazon, Apple, Tesla and Meta Platforms are among the companies that have continued to expand their presences in the metro.

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60% Of Homes Sold In Austin Metro In 2021 Went For More Than List Price

ABJ – 3/30/2022

According to Porch.com Inc. approx. 60% of all homes sold in 2021 went for more than asking price. The average sale-to-list price ratio was 105.1%, the fifth highest in the U.S. In expensive markets like the Austin area — where the Austin Board of Realtors reports the median price reached $499,995 in February — people tended to bid much higher than the list price.

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2 Huge High-Rises To Amp Up Austin Skyline, Including 43-Story Office Tower At Block 16

ABJ – 3/31/2022

Two sites within a few hundred yards of each other in downtown Austin are closer to being turned into high-rises.

A 43-story tower could rise on a downtown half-block currently home to restaurants such as P.F. Chang’s and Fleming’s Steakhouse. Carr Properties Inc. has partnered with Austin-based Manifold Development to develop an office tower of up to 738,000 sq. ft. on what’s known as Block 16, at Trinity and Second streets. Additonally Lincoln Property Co. and Kairoi Residential are planning a 74-story tower at 98 Red River St.  The project will include 352 apartments, 686,000 sq. ft. of office space and a 251-room hotel.

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Austin On Track to Become the Third-Largest Metropolitan Area in Texas

CoStar – 3/29/2022

Austin continues to grow at a breakneck pace relative to the rest of the nation and even Texas, according to new population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

By several measures, Austin has already been the third-largest real estate market in Texas for years now. With regards to multifamily and office investment, leasing volume and development, Austin has proven to be a larger hub for commercial real estate than its more populous neighbor to the southwest, San Antonio.  That dynamic is set to change, however, as Austin’s population is now less than 300,000 residents away from eclipsing San Antonio’s. This would make the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown Metropolitan Statistical Area the third largest in Texas after Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land.

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Austin Metro Population Wave Continues To Rise

ABJ – 3/31/2022

It’s not your imagination ­— there really are more moving vans in Austin these days.  In 2021, about 116 net new residents moved to the Austin metro a day, according to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The metro had the fourth-largest total population growth in the United States between July 2020 and July 2021, when the state of Texas added an estimated 310,288 residents.

Williamson County ranked among the top U.S. counties in terms of population gain. gaining an estimated 27,760 new residents in 2021, making it one of the 10 fastest-growing counties in the nation.

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As Austin Retail Bounces Back From COVID, Luxury Fashion And New Tech Dominate E-Commerce Growth

Austin American Statesman – 3/26/2022

As the retail sector bounces back from the pandemic, industry experts say they expect the future will lean heavily on a hybrid of e-commerce and in-person experiences, with assistance from emerging technologies like three-dimensional graphics, machine learning and visual recognition. One of the key growth areas is the e-commerce luxury resale sector, Austin is already on the radar of some of the fastest-growing players in the luxury resale sector.

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Austin Boasts Biggest Share Of Million-Dollar Homes In Texas, Report Says

Austin Culture Map – 3/28/2022

A recent report shows the number of local homes valued at more than $1 million has tripled in the last two years.  Data from real estate website Redfin shows that in Austin, the share of million-dollar homes in February 2020 was 3.9 percent; in February 2022, it reached 12.3 percent. The percentage of million-dollar homes in Austin is growing faster than in any other city in Texas.

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Texas Realtors: Texas Homebuyers More Diverse, Earn Higher Income Than National Average

Recon  – 3/31/2022

Texas homebuyers are more diverse and earn slightly higher incomes than homebuyers nationally, according to the 2022 Texas Homebuyers and Sellers Report by Texas Realtors. According to the report, 13% of homebuyers identified as Asian/Pacific Islander; 7% identified as Hispanic/Latino; 6% identified as Black/African-American. White/Caucasian homebuyers made up 77% of Texas buyers compared with 82% nationally.

The median household income for Texas homebuyers was $107,500, $5,500 more than the national median.

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Iconic Austin Burger Joint Cruises Into Buzzy Suburb’s Hottest Development

Austin Culture Map – 3/31/2022

Known for its laid-back, diner-style cuisine and its legendary status as one of the locations in Richard Linklater’s cult-favorite film Dazed and Confused, Top Notch has just revealed plans for its second-ever location, coming to the Austin suburb of Hutto later this year. The iconic restaurant’s new location will span 3,500 sq. ft. and will be located at the new Hutto Co-Op District on Hwy 79.

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Austin-Based Next Coast Ventures Raises $310 Million To Invest In Startups

Austin American Staetsman – 3/29/2022

More money will be flowing to Austin startups.  Next Coast Ventures — an active investor in Central Texas companies  — said it has closed on $310 million across three funds. This brings the amount raised by the Austin-based firm to more than $500 million in six years.  The firm said it will use the money to target Texas and other emerging technology hubs.

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Stonemont Financial to Develop 230,000 SF Spec Industrial Project in Metro Austin

REBusiness – 3/28/2022

Atlanta-based Stonemont Financial Group has acquired an 18-acre site just off Interstate 35 in the northern Austin suburb of Georgetown for the development of a 230,000-square-foot speculative industrial project. Westinghouse35 will feature a rear-load configuration, 32-foot clear heights and 58 dock doors, as well as up to 345 auto parking stalls and 68 full-size trailer parking stalls. Completion is slated for the first half of 2023.

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Facebook’s Parent Company To Build Sprawling Texas Data Center To Support Its Metaverse Initiative

CoStar – 3/31/2022

Meta, the Silicon Valley-based parent company of Facebook, is planning to locate its newest data center campus in Central Texas as part of its aggressive expansion to build out its digital networks to support its metaverse virtual reality initiative.

The company said construction on the 900,000-sq. ft. hyperscale data center on 393 acres in Temple will start in the next few weeks. Hyperscale data centers are part of California-based Meta’s larger strategy to boost its network of 3D interactive systems.

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Tech Firm Applied Materials Considers Hutto For $2.4 Billion Facility, Hundreds Of Jobs

Austin American Statesman – 4/1/2022

Technology company Applied Materials is considering a site in Hutto for a new $2.4 billion research and development facility that could employ hundreds of people and mark another big addition to the booming Central Texas high-tech sector.  During a meeting, board members of the Hutto Independent School District voted to formally consider an application from the company for tax breaks for the project.

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Buda Hopes To Use $1.6M In Federal Funding To Create New Commercial Corridor, Add Primary Jobs

A suburb south of Austin is using federal funds on critical infrastructure as part of an effort to build a new commercial corridor in the heart of the city.  U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett announced he had secured $1.6 million in federal appropriations from the omnibus appropriations bill that is expected to be used to expand the city of Buda’s sewer system and create an important commercial artery in the city along the expanded Robert S. Light Blvd.

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TikTok’s Downtown Office Lease in Austin, Texas, Is Now Official

CoStar  – 3/29/2022

The Austin, Texas, office market continues to be an attractive destination for international and national tech companies alike with TikTok officially signing a lease in the Texas capital.  The video-based social media platform will take up the top six floors of 300 Colorado in downtown Austin, for a little more than 150,000 square feet, according to multiple sources who were familiar with the transaction.

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Polaris Buys Balcones Club Apartments in Northwest Austin

CoStar  – 4/1/2022

Polaris Real Estate Partners has acquired the Balcones Club Apartments in Austin, Texas from the Presidium Group.  The investment firm out of San Francisco paid an undisclosed amount for the 312-unit property at 9218 Balcones Club Drive, just off Research Boulevard and Highway 183.

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Castletop Capital & Trammell Crow Co. Have Announced The Completion of Korina At The Grove in Austin

Connect Media  – 3/31/2022

A new investment platform that is targeting $100 million in multifamily acquisitions over the next two years has closed on a value-add property in Austin.  Toronto-based investment platform Silverstone Partners acquired SeventyTwo 27 Apartments, a 160-unit property built in 1984 at 7227 Highway 290 E in Austin’s Windsor Park neighborhood.  The acquisition aligns with Silverstone’s goal to acquire multifamily properties with upside potential in high-growth U.S. markets.

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Tricentis Signs 42,019 SF Office Lease at Uplands Corporate Center in North Austin

REBusiness – 3/28/2022

Tricentis, a provider of automated software testing services, has signed a 42,019-square-foot office lease at Uplands Corporate Center, a recently expanded office campus in North Austin. Russell Young of JLL represented the tenant, which plans to hire about 100 new employees, in the lease negotiations. Kevin Granger and Matt Frizzell of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord, Drawbridge Realty.

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