For not just years but decades, real estate professionals have known that Austin’s development review process is among the worst in the nation when it comes to grievous delays, inconsistent standards, and poor service. Consultant Paul Zucker delivered his scathing report — highlighting problems he’d first diagnosed back in the 1980s — earlier this year, and last Friday, the city manager delivered a 204-page action plan to fix what’s broken

Perhaps more so than any other industry, oil and its pricing volatility impacts all elements of the U.S. economy, both positively and negatively. Looking at it from a macroeconomic level, higher oil prices are good for some industries, and yet bad for others—and the same goes for lower prices.

The newest downtown Austin condo project has released renderings and announced that it will begin taking reservations in August. The Austin Proper is a residential and hotel development slated to open in late 2017 on Nueces Street in the Green Water Treatment Plant redevelopment.

A new downtown office building will soon rise where the Austin Music Hall now stands.

The music venue at 208 Nueces St. will be demolished in January to make way for the planned 28-story office building. The Austin Business Journal reported that Cielo Property Group is partnering with Tier REIT of Dallas to build the new tower.

National Field Services is searching for commercial real estate in the New Braunfels area to serve customers in the Austin and San Antonio markets.

If you’re nostalgic for the days of the Dillo, the free downtown circulator that Capital Metro operated until 2009, good news: a new downtown circulator has started transporting people around the clogged streets, only this time it’s operated by RideScout.

Austin’s oldest craft brewery is in the midst of a major expansion and plans to move into a new 22,000-sf facility on the Colorado River. The brewery is being constructed on a 20+ acre site near the airport, and will offer guests a much different experience than the brewery’s current home on East 5th Street.

More than six months after Austin City Council expanded from seven to 11 members, two city commissions are undergoing a similar transition.

Effective July 1, the Planning Commission and Zoning and Platting Commission expanded to 14 and 11 members, respectively, in response to the city’s effort to create a larger City Council based on geographic representation. Each council member nominates one resident to both boards, while the mayor is allowed to nominate up to four Planning Commission members.

With retail occupancy across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex experiencing its strongest occupancy levels in 15 years, the region is also seeing more retail construction than it has in nearly a decade. That’s the top-line assessment from the Weitzman Group, which reports that the majority of the space coming on line this year is already leased.

In a few short years, crowdfunding in commercial real estate has evolved from a novelty to a growing force. In 2014, volume totaled slightly more than $1 billion, accounting for about 6 percent of the $16.2 billion raised globally through crowdfunding, according to Massolution, a research and advisory firm.

"This industrial-era concept that there is a separation between work and home is becoming increasingly less relevant," says Elie Finegold, SVP of global innovation and business intelligence at CBRE Group Inc. "Because you can work from anywhere, space has become more fungible." This new reality is forcing a radical transformation of how people think about real estate, Finegold says.

It’s a millennial world and everyone else is just living in it. As of 2013, millennials outnumbered baby boomers 79M to 76M, and as the boomers continue to age, that gap will continue to widen to a predicted 78 million to 56 million in 2030. Not to mention, this adventurous, try-anything-once generation is quickly becoming the biggest customer block for the hospitality industry.

Commercial real estate’s current run should continue for another several years, yet a MetLife Real Estate Investors report sees the cycle "aging." With that comes the potential for increasing risk, even in indicators for which MREI currently rates the risk level as low.

The most significant impact on real estate for the long-term will be demographic shifts, according to The Counselors of Real Estate. CRE’s External Affairs Committee has released its 2015-16 "Top 10 Issues Affecting Real Estate" report and the impending shift of retiring Baby Boomers and the rising Millennial generation appear to be the biggest area to monitor.

Date: 7/22/2015
Time: 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Uncle Billy's BBQ/Zilker Park

Date: 8/12/2015
Time: 8:00 am - 1:30 pm
JW Marriott
110 E 2nd St

Date: 8/27/2015
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Online Webinar

This webinar serves as a great introduction to the Argus Valuation software for those who have little or no previous experience with the software, or for those who are interested in how it works.

The presenters will take it slow - starting with what you see when you first open the program. They'll take you through how to build an ARGUS model "from scratch" - without relying on the ARGUS Wizard or an existing template.