The Real Estate Council of Austin, which bills itself as the local "voice of the commercial real estate industry," has issued its first white paper advocating for 100,000 new housing units to be built within the city limits by 2025 — across a variety of price points — and calls on the city to encourage higher-density housing downtown.

Transportation advocates were dealt a heavy blow in November when the $1 billion rail and road ballot initiative was soundly rejected by voters. Unlike the 2000 rail-only initiative, which was broader and almost passed, this one wasn’t even close with only 43 percent of the electorate giving it a thumbs up.

The Austin Business Journal wants to honor those individuals in the commercial real estate industry that take the risk to advance, preserve or positively change our community. We are looking for projects and transactions that have had the biggest impact.

Sorry, Austin. The Texas capital is no longer the best-performing big city in America, according to the Milken Institute's 2014 Best-Performing Cities report.

The Texas Building Owners and Managers Association say "unpredictable and uncontrolled" increases in property values put significant burdens on the state’s businesses and could lead to many leaving Houston to avoid the appraisals.

The group has launched a statewide initiative "Taxed out of Town" to push for appraisal reform, according to a recent statement from the advocacy organization, which represents commercial properties in Texas.

It took just two days for the new Senate to leave former Sen. Tom Coburn’s legacy behind, quickly passing a terrorism insurance bill that the Oklahoma Republican had single-handedly blocked late last year.

The bill renewed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which expired at the end of last year after Mr. Coburn launched a one-man opposition effort, objecting to one specific part of the measure that creates a national registry for insurance agents.

Endeavor Real Estate Group has secured a major listing assignment on behalf of the California State Teachers Retirement System, which recently acquired a 100 percent stake in one of downtown Austin's largest multi-tenant office building portfolios

GLL Real Estate Partners, one of the first major international investors in Austin commercial real estate, expanded its local holdings this week with the purchase of Prominent Pointe I and II in Northwest Austin.

Steve Adler has stepped down from his law firm Barron & Adler LLP as he prepares to take the reins as Austin's new mayor.

The founders of RealMassive are feeling pretty good. As the real estate tech company heads into its third year of operations, it's gaining traction across the industry. About $4.1 million has been invested, mostly by local backers, to launch and scale the company that aims to bring office and industrial leasing data into the public domain on the Internet.

Parking Panda, a mobile application designed to enable drivers to reserve parking places, plans to launch in Austin in January.

Baltimore-based Parking Panda Corp. has scheduled a statewide service in Texas that would include Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth, Partner Account Manager Bryan Lozano said.

There’s one industry that’s virtually always overlooked in these discussions– commercial real estate. Nevertheless, mark my words. This industry is on the brink of disruption. Though one of the oldest industries in the United States, commercial real estate has lagged behind other industries in terms of innovation, particularly when it comes to adopting and advancing technology In fact, it has been argued that the commercial real estate market is in the same place that the financial services industry was 20 years ago.

A Minneapolis start-up wants to do for commercial real estate what Priceline and Expedia did for travel.

Just as third-party websites diminished the need for travel agents, this new company is trying to harness technology to remove a layer between a business hunting for office space and an owner looking to fill its building.

Shareholders in real estate investment trusts have enjoyed five years of market-beating gains, but many are starting to wonder whether higher rates could whisk away that outperformance, and bring those who competed in the race for yield to a screeching halt.

Crowdfunding firm Fundrise is writing a new playbook for capital sourcing in redevelopment markets ripe for deal financing, but too small for large investors to back.

The firm has created an online platform for smaller investors to participate in crowdfunded real estate projects that comply with regulatory guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Date: 1/22/2015

Time: 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Speakeasy

Date: 2/19/2015

Time: 6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

JW Marriott