In a very sad accident, three men died after scaffolding collapsed on the 11th floor of 21 Rio, a 21-story rental apartment complex rising in the West Campus neighborhood near UT. The three men were standing on the scaffolding when part of the platform collapsed. The luxury student apartment complex is scheduled to open later…
Episcopal Church to Develop Downtown Block
The Episcopal Church has purchased the downtown block bounded by Seventh, Eighth, Trinity and Neches streets for $9.5 million. The national church organization plans to spend an additional $40 million to create a new complex to house its national archives. When completed, the building will be as tall as 5 stories with 70,000 square feet…
Austin Leads Nation in Job Growth – AGAIN!
This just in: Austin led the nation’s big city job markets for the third month in a row. In fact, Austin was the ONLY large metropolitan area to add jobs between April 2008 and April 2009. With 3,400 new jobs, Austin employment grew at 0.4% during the period. Since job growth is one of the…
The Ugly Side of Downtown Austin
The shooting of 8 people last Thursday night outside a downtown nightclub was an anomaly for Austin. The terrible incident at Spiros nightclub, however, brought to light the problems that come with the vibrant alcohol-driven nightlife on sixth street and the surrounding blocks. After the incident, the Austin Police Department released an amazing set of…
WOW! Austin Home Prices Rising!
Across the country, most major metropolitan areas are seeing home prices continue to drop. In fact, housing values are down 20% from their peak nationwide. Housing prices in Austin, however, never experienced the same loss of value. While inventory remains high and sales volumes have dropped — April 2009 sales were down 33% from the…
W Hotel & Residences Developer Faces Delisting
Stratus Properties, the developer of the W Hotel & Residences in the 2nd street district, is facing delisting from the NASDAQ for failure to promptly file financial reports. While this sounds bad, the event alone should not jeopardize the project. However, the developer’s accounting irregularities and delinquent financial reports will limit financial flexibility until the issue is resolved. This…