As real estate professionals working in Austin, we have long known that the city’s process for regulating our industry is broken. As of mid-March, it appears, City Hall is willing to agree.

The amount of pending city of Austin permits awaiting approval may be reduced in the near future.

Mayor Steve Adler spoke during a March 25 luncheon hosted by Real Estate Council of Austin about a resolution that would direct the city manager to develop a plan to eliminate the city's oft-noted backlog of development permits. Austin City Council will consider the proposal during its April 2 meeting.

The CRE industry is in the boom times once again. In the exclusive column below, Joseph Ori, executive managing director of Paramount Capital Corp. discusses his firm’s top 10 investment strategies for 2015.

The Federal Reserve released a statement today that suggested an interest rate hike may come later than widely expected. At the end of a two-day meeting the US central bank said unemployment could fall further without leading to the sort of inflation that would trigger the first rate hike in a decade.

Careful readers will find an Easter egg tucked in one of the tax measures approved by a Senate committee this week — a mostly unmentioned clause that would constitutionally ban taxes on real estate transactions.

Texas' economic development programs would be consolidated into one portal under a bill presented Thursday by Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston.

The male domination in the Austin commercial real estate market actually is an advantage, according to three veteran women brokers.

The report shows the top seven zip codes in which to find a bar are 78701 (Austin), 01103 (Springfield), 48226 (Detroit), 06510 (New Haven, CT), 32502 (Pensacola, FL), 80202 (Denver) and 70130 (New Orleans). There are a total of 88 bars in Austin, which works out to one bar for every 67 people.

Perhaps more germane to the real estate industry are the statistics on rental and home-payment affordability and the percentage of Millennial residents (between ages 21 and 35 in 2015) in each of these markets.

News came out that famed blues club Antone’s will reopen in downtown Austin, while the more recently-relocated Lustre Pearl also announced it will also reopen soon, with locations on Rainey Street and on East Cesar Chavez Street. Further south, the South Congress Hotel announced that it will open its doors this summer.

The city of Austin has released a formal response to a recent report that found the city's planning and development office processes are in need of a serious overhaul.

After surviving a tough recession, the hotel market may actually be bouncing back too fast for investors, reports Forbes.

The Atlanta Braves and Comcast have entered into a landmark multi-year technology and real estate partnership that will call for multi-terabit network capabilities to SunTrust Park and the surrounding community, creating the most technologically advanced mixed-use development in the U.S.

In the world of e-commerce, the need for integration between retail and logistics channels has never been more acute. Accordingly, amid the strong growth of the online sales channel as well as omni-channel sales, retail and industrial real estate are converging: a white paper from the NAIOP Research Foundation says manufacturers, transportation providers, distribution and fulfillment center operators and retailers alike are working to change the retail logistics chain.

4/21/2015

11:15 am - 1:00 pm

The Four Seasons Hotel
98 San Jacinto Blvd.