Last week, in the wee hours of Friday morning, at the tail end of its last meeting, the outgoing Austin City Council chose not to do something very important. And that is good.

What the Council avoided was a misguided attempt to amend the city’s comprehensive plan, Imagine Austin, in the guise of an innocuous wording change that almost passed unnoticed. I’m new here at RECA after nearly a decade of working for Austin City Council Members and in the City Manager’s office, I’ve never seen anything this fundamentally important to the future of Austin placed on an agenda in such a hidden way.

Few cities in the U.S. will ever face the pressures bearing down on Austin. Over the past decade, economic, cultural and demographic factors have conspired to attract thousands of businesses and households to Central Texas. Real estate development and investment activity has grown at an unprecedented pace and the city faces enormous challenges — all chronicled over the past year in the ABJ

The Real Estate Council of Austin lauded leading commercial brokers and civic leaders at its annual awards luncheon Sunday.

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.

Leadership in the city of Austin changed hands Jan. 6 as 10 recently elected City Council members and the new mayor were sworn into office.

The Williamson Central Appraisal District and other members of the Texas Association of Appraisal Districts aim to lobby for reforms to the way commercial property values are determined during the upcoming 84th Texas legislative session, which begins in mid-January.

WCAD Chief Appraiser Alvin Lankford said since 1997 state law has allowed some commercial property owners to lower their appraised values each year by millions of dollars, which has lead to some of the property tax burden shifting to residential property owners.

More doctors, more road funding and less bureaucracy are called for at the Capitol by the state's most influential business advocacy group.

The Texas Association of Business has unveiled its legislative priorities in what it calls the 2015 Jobs Agenda. Download the 23-page agenda here.

The Real Estate Roundtable recently urged the House and Senate to make reinstatement of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) a top national priority when the new Congress convenes in January.

Developer Trammell Crow Co. isn't just working on the high-profile Green Water Treatment Plant redevelopment downtown. The company also has broken ground on 239,205 square feet of warehouse, flex and manufacturing space at the Expo Business Park between I-35 and Austin-Bergstom International Airport in Southeast Austin.

CBRE Group Inc. has been awarded the property management assignment for 10 office buildings in Austin owned by Equity Commonwealth, (NYSE: EQC) a real estate investment trust based in Chicago.

Austin is the third-fastest growing big city in America since 2000, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Outgoing Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell has formed a new group focused on Austin's economy that he hopes will be a resource for the new 10-1 City Council.

The most entrepreneur-friendly states under the "Small Business Policy Index 2014" are: 1) South Dakota, 2) Nevada, 3) Texas, 4) Wyoming, 5) Florida, 6) Washington, 7) Alabama, 8) Indiana, 9) Colorado, 10) North Dakota, 11) Ohio, 12) Arizona, 13) Utah, 14) Michigan, and 15) Virginia.

Improving commercial property fundamentals, a steady stream of offshore capital and an accommodating Federal Reserve interest rate policy will sustain robust property investment in 2015, real estate analysts predict, as buyers keep seeking yield and safe havens in the U.S.

But rising interest rates, the cooling of energy markets amid oil's price plummet, and other variables threaten to thwart those expectations. What's more, 2015 could be the year that reveals whether escalating property prices are sustainable, especially as underwriting becomes more aggressive.

The study, which aimed to understand the role the internet plays in commercial real estate, leverages Google's proprietary online search data and custom research conducted on LoopNet's behalf by Market Connections, an independent research firm, in 2014 to survey and analyze the behaviors of tenants and investors currently involved in a commercial property search and who have recently been involved in a transaction. The joint study revealed that nearly 80% of tenants and investors report using online sources to search for commercial property.

Succeeding in the commercial real estate is a topic I’m often asked about. Even if you don’t technically start your own business, if you are a commercial broker, you essentially have your own business. Below is a list of 20 lessons I have learned over the past 30 years that you may be able to benefit from:

New technologies are changing the face of the real estate business and those who want to stay ahead of their particular game – be they agents, brokers, buyers, sellers or even investors – should be snatching up these tailor-made apps.

The world grows greener and greener and the rapid expansion of zero net energy commercial buildings serves as evidence. According to a new report by BCC Research, by 2018, the global market for ZNE commercial buildings will increase to $239.7 million.

Featuring Rep. Paul Workman and Rep. Eddie Rodriguez

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