BG Reads | News You Need to Know (January 25, 2022)
Downtown Austin
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
Work Session Meeting of the Austin City Council - Agenda (January 25 @9AM)
Kroll Associates, Inc.'s Phase B Report on the Austin Police Department (APD) regarding APD's public interaction, use of force, recruitment and promotions.
Council appointments to intergovernmental entities and Council Committee memberships.
Regular Meeting of the Austin City Council - Agenda (January 27 @10AM)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Taylor has annexed 1,200-plus acres for Samsung site (Austin Business Journal)
The massive plot of land in Taylor that is set to become Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s $17 billion chipmaking plant is now officially inside city limits, potentially adding more than $50 million to the city's general fund over the next three decades.
During a pair of Jan. 13 meetings, Taylor City Council unanimously approved the annexation and established the base zoning for the 1,268-acre plot near the former intersection of County Roads 401 and 404.
The move marks the latest step in South Korea-based Samsung's construction of the plant, which is the largest foreign development in Texas on record. The company announced late last year that it will build a 6-million-square-foot factory west of Taylor High School, where the company plans to produce its most advanced computer chips.
Construction on the facility will start early this year, and Samsung expects to commence operations by the second half of 2024. Samsung also has a large chipmaking campus in Austin where it has operated for 25 years.
As part of the project, the company was approved for a slew of incentives, including from Taylor Independent School District, Williamson County and the city of Taylor, the latter of which required the company to annex the land into city limits. Samsung purchased the land following the official factory announcement and filed an annexation petition Dec. 9, city documents show.
The city's incentives included a property tax abatement, but officials have noted that despite the 30-year abatement — which starts at 92.5% during the first 10 years, then falls to 85% in the final 10 years — the city is projected to receive $52 million into its general fund over that period. The company's investment includes $6 million in buildings and $11 million in machinery… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New Apple campus construction in northwest Austin coming together (KVUE)
In December 2018, Apple announced its intents to build a $1 billion office campus in northwest Austin, nearly a mile away from its existing campus off of Parmer Lane.
Now, more than three years later, the Austin Business Journal (ABJ) reports the first phase of the project is nearly complete. Apple officials said in April 2021 it expected to move employees into the space sometime in 2022.
The project comes as Apple continues to build its footprint across the country. Last year, Apple announced it would be committing a $430 billion investment across the U.S. over the next five years.
"It’s been over 25 years since Apple opened its first office in Austin, and we are thrilled to be deepening our partnership with the city and people here," an Apple spokesperson told KVUE in April.
The new campus is expected to bring nearly 5,000 jobs to Austin in engineering, research and development, operations, finance, sales and customer support… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Reviving history or disrupting a neighborhood? Austin Opera House plan sparks debate (Austin American-Statesman)
A development proposal for a 4.6-acre plot just east of the South Congress district includes a plan to reopen the Austin Opera House, a live music venue with a storied past connected to Willie Nelson.
Austin's City Council will consider the proposal this week, but residents of the adjacent Fairview Park neighborhood have raised objections and taken legal measures that could stop the project.
Developer Chris Wallin, who purchased the property in 2012, recently teamed with local musician and architect Richard Weiss to create a project they call 200 Academy, after the street address of the property about a mile south of Lady Bird Lake. Their plan also includes residential housing, a park, a music museum, retail and residential space, and an underground parking garage to replace the current large parking lot.
Though some details will depend on what gets approved, Weiss said the developers are looking to build 150 to 200 apartment units as part of the project. Retail and restaurant allocations are still in flux; “the numbers may change some as we try and provide more housing,” Weiss said.
He’s similarly uncertain at this point about expenses, noting that “we won’t have a good feel for the costs until we hear what council will allow us to design.”
At its peak during the 1980s, the Austin Opera House was one of the city’s best music venues. With a capacity of nearly 2,000, the South Austin concert hall could attract major touring acts that were too big for the hallowed Liberty Lunch but not big enough for the cavernous Erwin Center… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
During final days, Dallas economic development chief says 'calls are coming for relocation opportunities' (Dallas Business Journal)
In one of his final public appearances as chief of economic development and neighborhood services for the City of Dallas, Eric Anthony Johnson discussed the city’s developing commercial real estate policies – and even teased some potential corporate relocations.
The Dallas Regional Chamber’s Mike Rosa joined Johnson in a panel discussion moderated by Kyle Salzman of LJA Engineering as part of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce’s annual Real Estate and Economic Outlook on Friday.
One critical point that Johnson didn’t shy away from involved the state of retail and hospitality in a commercial capacity.
“In terms of commercial retail, we’re starting to see some clearing out in certain parts of the city and we are getting requests to potentially rezone into something different,” said Johnson.
Since retail is not returning and office is becoming more limited in its use, Johnson said, developers are asking across districts to bend zoning requirements to allow for less office space and retail and more housing.
He also hit on the major hit hospitality has taken due to the pandemic, while also noting plans around the current convention center “basically [going] away” – one of the bigger refrains out of City Hall last year – and the city’s recent hotel acquisitions.
“Some of you guys know that we have bought our hotels over the last year and a half. We have stepped in and saved several hotels from collapsing. If I gave you guys the true, behind-the-scenes story in terms of the negotiations with a lot of these hotel operators, it’s a really big deal. The dollars from the Feds actually allowed us to save several hotel operators. I can’t get into the details, but a lot of that stuff was going on as well,” said Johnson… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Vote-by-mail rejections are testing integrity of Texas Republicans’ voting law (Texas Tribune)
Barely started down the path toward the first elections conducted under voting restrictions enacted last year by Republican lawmakers, Texas voters and local election officials have found themselves enveloped in a fog of errors, delays and miscommunications as they navigate new rules for casting votes by mail.
Only a small slice of the state's electorate is allowed to cast absentee ballots, and the trickle of requests for mail-in ballots that began in early January is now swelling into the usual pre-election flood.
But hundreds of applications are being rejected — in many cases because voters appear to not know the new rules. Local election workers themselves are still deciphering the procedures, and say they've been hampered by a paucity of help and information from the Texas secretary of state's office. Meanwhile, the state is scrambling to provide training under the crush of advising counties on implementing a multitude of election changes… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
US orders 8,500 troops on heightened alert amid Russia worry (Associated Press)
The Pentagon ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert to potentially deploy to Europe as part of a NATO “response force” amid growing concern that Russia could soon make a military move on Ukraine. President Joe Biden consulted with key European leaders, underscoring U.S. solidarity with allies there.
Putting the U.S.-based troops on heightened alert for Europe on Monday suggested diminishing hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin will back away from what Biden himself has said looks like a threat to invade neighboring Ukraine.
At stake, beyond the future of Ukraine, is the credibility of a NATO alliance that is central to U.S. defense strategy but that Putin views as a Cold War relic and a threat to Russian security. For Biden, the crisis represents a major test of his ability to forge a united allied stance against Putin.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said about 8,500 U.S.-based troops are being put on alert for possible deployment — not to Ukraine but to NATO territory in Eastern Europe as part of an alliance force meant to signal a unified commitment to deter any wider Putin aggression… (LINK TO FULL STORY)