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2008 Construction Outlook For Texas

Report:

Cranes also tower over downtown Austin, where currently more than one dozen hotels, condominiums and mixed-use high rises are under construction along Lady Bird Lake. The idea of work downtown/live downtown is another way that Austin is combating traffic congestion on its freeways. On the other hand, Austin’s neighboring counties, Hays and Williamson, are in the top 100 fastest-growing counties in the nation for housing units and retail/light commercial.

Houston

Although new highway projects in the Houston area will remain down, building in the surrounding suburban counties will continue strong in 2008. Fort Bend and Brazoria counties on Houston’s southwest side, with their growing communities of Katy, Sugar Land and Pearland will continue as a hotbed of residential and light commercial construction.

What Free Parking?

From FWWeekly.com:

Taft defended the parking program with the example of The Tower, the multi-million-dollar high-rise condo that was redeveloped in the old tornado-damaged Bank One building. That project wouldn’t have happened without public money, he said.

The TIF helped pay for asbestos removal during the renovation and now pays TLC Green, the building’s owner, $832,904 a year to lease about 400 parking spaces. The lease is in effect for 10 more years, guaranteeing TLC Green $9.8 million. Few people probably know that, however — there are no signs at The Tower advertising the free parking, though web sites run by Downtown Fort Worth Inc. do mention it.

The Tower “had some real problems and sat for a long time after the tornado” in 2000, Taft said. “There were many who thought it would be torn down. And the conversion of an office to condominiums was a very risky venture. But the investment we made through TIF money, in both asbestos removal and parking, made the development happen.

“Once it happened and succeeded, the downtown housing market really took off,” Taft said. “None of the new housing downtown would have happened as it did had The Tower not succeeded. The government agencies have seen their property tax revenue go up. So I would say it was a very good investment.”

First Baptist Dallas leader Robert Jeffress calls for new worship center

Sam Hodges writes:

Both First Presbyterian and First United Methodist of Dallas are expected to announce more modest expansion projects this year. The latter has a relatively new, 75-member class of young professionals, many of them living in recently built or restored condominiums and apartments nearby.

"The downtown churches have always been regional churches. We pull from all over Dallas County. The news flash is we've become neighborhood churches again," said John Fiedler, senior pastor at First United Methodist.

Mixed-use project planned in Colleyville

Steve Brown writes:

Realty Capital Corp. said Monday that it will start work next summer on the two-building, $10 million project.

The development is planned as a new "front door" to the Village at Colleyville complex on State Highway 26.

Realty Capital said it has acquired several properties fronting along the highway, which will be cleared for the planned construction.

"After years of negotiations with the sellers, we were thrilled that we finally had the opportunity to purchase these three properties," Jimmy Archie, chief operating officer at Realty Capital, said in a statement. "This project will bring The Village at Colleyville out to Highway 26 and it will serve as a landmark for the entire development."

The developer plans to build two Spanish-Mediterranean style buildings on the property. A three-story building will contain retail, restaurant and office space on the ground floor with 30 condominiums above that. The condos will sell for about $250,000.

Austintatious: Change is storming Texas' low-key capital of cool

From Trading Markets.com:

A W Hotel is under construction as part of the $260 million Block 21 development. New high-rise condos and cranes dot the skyline. In the city's northwest, the outdoor mall The Domain _ which feels like Southlake Town Center, or NorthPark with the lid off _ opened in March sporting Austin's first full-line Neiman Marcus (it already had a Last Call), as well as Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren stores. A second phase of The Domain is set to open in 2009.

Longtime Austinites and newcomers alike debate among themselves whether there are enough people in the metro area of 1.5 million to support such a market over the long haul. "Fifteen years ago, I would have said that Starbucks would not have been successful, that Austin isn't going to pay $5 for a cup of coffee. I would have told you that ice hockey would never play in Austin," says Jim Nolen, a senior lecturer in the University of Texas at Austin's finance department. "But it is successful, and that tells you how many people have migrated to Austin."

"There are so many transplants coming in with all the growth," says Johanna Flink, general manager of Qua, a 25-and-over bottle-service lounge _ with a controversial shark tank in the middle of the floor _ that opened in October within a Cristal spritz of Pangaea. "It's great to meet people from New York and London. I just met two Australians who moved here. I'm like, `How did you hear about Austin?'"

Boasting such annual events as the South by Southwest music/film/interactive festival and the Austin City Limits music festival, and home to the state's most vibrant movie industry, the self-proclaimed "live music capital of the world" has long been on the hipster radar. But now that Austin is showing up on "best cities" lists _ ranked in the Top 10 in Money, Travel & Leisure, Kiplinger, Hispanic Magazine and Men's Journal in recent years _ it's attracting interest from a broader spectrum of the population, says Beth Krauss of the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau.