RW’s TX CRE Brief: 07/23/21
Did you know? Texas was the Nation’s #1 Jobs Creator with 1.98 Million Jobs added between 2010-2020.
This week’s newsletter includes:
1) TX CRE Brief Update
2) TX specific deals, announcements, and news.
3) Other news of interest
4) Economic data & policy
5) Books, courses, podcasts
1) TX CRE BRIEF UPDATE
TX CRE Brief started in 2019 simply as a collection of e-mails shared between me and a few counterparts. In January of this year, I moved to a more structured format and started posting monthly briefs on this website. Soon after, the briefs expanded to a weekly publication cadence with greater depth of information each week.
It has been interesting to watch traffic statistics over time. This enterprise has always been 1) an exercise to keep me integrated into the commercial real estate world in Texas, and 2) a vehicle with which to share information with select counterparts. As such, I have not publicized it much save for a LinkedIn post now and again. From those posts however, the following traffic statistics were a bit surprising but nonetheless welcome:
States with Visitors: Texas, California, Wisconsin, Virginia, Illinois, Oregon, Georgia, New York, Maryland, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
Other Countries: Canada, China, Finland, and Turkey.
Unique Visitors represent 20% of total page views, meaning a good number of new visitors come to the site each week.
Page Views grow each week, and a significant number of visitors click back to the main page and then over to previous week’s/month’s data.
All in all, this little side project has been rewarding, educational, and a little bit surprising as well. Not bad, not bad at all!
2) DEALS / ANNOUNCEMENTS / NEWS
Austin
NewsTalk Texas is reporting that Yardi Matrix shows 9 of 30 tracked US Markets with double-digit year-over-year rent growth. Austin came in at 8.9%, Dallas at 7.3%, and Houston at 4.7%. that Austin
Storage is trading in Austin, with Dallas-Based Bulldog 135 South LP purchasing CubeSmart, a 57,707sf storage facility with 463 units. Bellomy & Co represented the seller and procured the buyer.
Austin Business Journal reports that Switch has received re-zoning approval for its first data center in TX. The Round Rock city council unanimously signed off on the change for the land that Switch announced it would acquire from Dell in early June.
Facebook is expanding in downtown, and is also entering Pflugerville as reported by the Austin Business Journal. It signed 32,000 sf industrial space lease in Pflugerville and it’s expanding its footprint at 300 W. Sixth Street downtown.
DFW/Metroplex
Dallas Morning News reports that CA-based investor, The Kor Group, has purchased the 21-story Gables Uptown Tower. JLL marketed the property.
Dallas Business Journal reports that International Leadership of Texas is relocating its HQ to Richardson and that the company will occupy the entire 59K sf building.
More multi-family trading, with REBusiness Online sharing that Midpark Towers, a 202-unit apartment complex in North Dallas was purchased by Elizabeth Property Group. Greystone brokered the deal.
Dallas Moring News reports that Scott Rohrman’s 42 Real Estate plans to develop a two-building skyscraper project at Elm & Pearl in downtown. The mixed-use development plan is said to contain 200k sf of office, 250 hotel rooms, 224 apartments, and ground floor retail as well.
Bisnow shares some info coming out of last week’s The Evolution of DFW Office event. Executives from HqO, ARCO/Murray, Hillwood, KDC, and WorkSuites all share their opinions. If you didn’t attend, this recap is definitely worth a read.
Houston
NewsTalk Texas reports that Levcor will redevelop the 503,000-sf Post Oak Plaza shopping and dining district in Houston Uptown. Project should complete in 2022 with SHOP Co’s handling leasing.
REBusiness Online shares that MCR has acquired the 132-room Courtyard by Marriott at I-10 West / Park Row. The purchase was part of a $94M portfolio sale.
NewsTalk Texas shares that TricorBraun has signed a 70,106sf industrial lease at Ella West Crossing in the Pinto Business Park. Holt Lunsford Commercial represented the landlord, and Cresa represented the tenant.
Houston Business Journal reports that Medline Industries Inc. to open huge distribution center in Katy. Medline, an Illinois based health care supply delivery company, will add up to 100 jobs in the area.
Bisnow reports that Boca Raton, Florida-based CP Group has acquired Five Post Oak Park in the Galleria/Uptown submarket in Houston.
San Antonio
REBusiness Online shares that Dallas-based Encore Multifamily will develop Encore Lower Broadway, a 386-unit project in San Antonio’s Pearl District.
REBusiness Online reports that KM Realty Trust has acquired City Base Commons from GFR Development. The San Antonio shopping center is reported to be 95% leased at the time of sale.
2) OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST
Kastle Systems 10 City Back to Work Barometer shows that the post Covid return to office space increased over the past week. Austin, Dallas, and Houston are still the leaders in the nation with their 52.7%, 50.7% and 51.2% well above the national average of 34.5%.
NewsTalk Texas is reporting that Yardi Matrix shows 9 of 30 tracked US Markets with double-digit year-over-year apartment rent growth. Austin came in at 8.9%, Dallas at 7.3%, and Houston at 4.7%.
Texas Real Estate Research Center summarized Texas’ data within RCLCO Real Estate Advisors’ list of top-50 master planned communities, mid-year 2021. Texas ranks second in the nation with 17 on the list.
WalletHub’s 2021 Best & Worst States to Start a Business list hit the presses this week, and no surprise, Texas is the #1 state in the nation to launch and grow a business.
3) ECONOMIC DATA & POLICY
Texas A&M’s Real Estate Research Center reports that The Texas Weekly Leading Index decreased during the week of July 10th. This marks the second straight week for a decrease, which they again attribute to higher unemployment claims and lower new business applications. Further detail by metro can be found here.
The Texas Workforce Commission reports that Texas added 55,800 jobs in June. Leisure and Hospitality added 19,000 jobs. Professional and Business Services increased by 13,200. And, Education and Health Services employment gained 9,500 jobs over the month. Granular level MSA data is included in the report.
The Austin Chamber Job Growth & Unemployment Report shares that Austin has added jobs in 12 of the last 13 months and its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 4.8% to 4.6% in May. As well, Austin’s leisure & hospitality industry has seen 74% of lost jobs return.
Wells Fargo’s Weekly Economic & Financial Commentary reports that a rise in Covid has brought some jitters to the market. And, inflation is still an ongoing concern.
Speaking of inflation, JLL’s Ryan Severino penned “Economic Insights: Partial Inflation Glossary” It is definitely worth a read and he is definitely worth a follow.
Interesting data out of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics with its American Time Use Summary. People are working at home! Who would’ve guessed?!? Some of the internal stats are interesting, however.
AAA reports that the national average for gasoline is holding at $3.15 with Texas’s average dropping by a few cents to $2.81 a gallon.
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will report the GDP 2nd Quarter Advanced Estimate on July 29th. Keep an eye out…
4) BOOKS, COURSES, PODCASTS
Sandler’s “How To Succeed Podcast” this week featured Mike Montague interviewing John Davis on the subject of “Hacking Fear Responses.” Davis was once paralyzed and went on to be a stuntman and corporate keynote speaker. Takeaways: You can do anything! Stay firmly present. And, breath!
While in a Sandler mode, I re-read “Sandler Enterprise Selling” last week. It is a wonderful guide to the process of selling into the enterprise, or national account, space.
On the non-fiction front, I recently finished Steven Rinella’s “American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon.” I really enjoyed the book. One reviewer summed it up best with “Both a fascinating piece of outdoor writing and a gonzo meditation on the history of the mighty beast in our national life.”
THANK YOU
I hope you enjoyed this week’s TX-CRE-Brief. If you see something that might be of interest and should be included in a future brief, please send it along via DM on LinkedIn or by e-mail to TX.Sales.Leadership@pm.me.
And please, by all means, support the sources I link to above.
Thanks everyone!