BG Reads | News You Need to Know (March 21, 2022)
[BG Podcast]
Episode 151: 2022 Public Safety Update with Selena Xie, President, Austin EMS Association
Today’s episode features Selena Xie, President of the Austin EMS Association.
Selena and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discuss the anniversary of Winter Storm Uri, in addition to Selena updating on EMS's needs going into 2022.
(The Austin EMS Association is a Bingham Group client)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin city leaders say controversial legislation passed last year is costing the city millions (WFAA)
Leaders in Austin say the city has not only lost business because of controversial legislation passed last year, but tens of millions of future dollars are now at risk.
Tom Noonan, the president and CEO of Visit Austin, the group that markets Austin nationally and internationally, tells Inside Texas Politics seven groups with future meetings planned in the city have voiced concern over recent “legislative issues.”
Noonan says that includes recent opinions by Gov. Greg Abbott regarding transgender youth and the passing of Senate Bill 8 (the "heartbeat bill" that has effectively banned abortions in Texas) and Senate Bill 1 (the GOP-backed election fraud bill).
In terms of the financial impact for the city, Visit Austin estimates those seven groups will generate $17.4 million.
Noonan also says one group has already canceled a 2023 event in the city, citing the passing of SB 8 and SB 1 as to why they were moving their meeting. That cost the city just under $1 million in economic impact.
And that’s not all.
“Due to the passing of SB 8 and SB 1 last year, there were six groups who were considering Austin as the location for their meetings but cited legislative issues as to why they chose another host city,” Noonan told Inside Texas Politics. “The total estimated economic impact of those meetings would have been $31 million.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Activists remain wary of new jet fuel storage facility plans (Austin Monitor)
Activists and homeowners are protesting the proposed location for a new jet-fuel storage facility at the airport on the northbound side of U.S. Highway 183. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring for the project, which will include two storage tanks, each with the capacity to store 1.5 million gallons of jet fuel just 488 feet away from the homes of some Southeast Austin residents.
District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who represents the area including the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, is taking the lead on the issue, proposing a resolution to relocate the facility and have an environmental justice analysis conducted alongside “robust community engagement.” City Council will hear the resolution at its upcoming meeting on April 7.
“Although the selection of the site underwent the required permitting through federal, state and local processes, I have serious concerns about how they took place,” Fuentes wrote on the City Council Message Board. “Specifically, the initial environmental assessment for the proposed site was selected without public input. The draft was not available to the public before finalizing and publishing and the assessment failed to conduct a substantive environmental justice analysis that took into account the surrounding residents. … There needs to be corrective action and new expectations for the public engagement process. We are at a pivotal point.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Office tower could rise on South Congress Ave. as dense development heads south of Lady Bird Lake (Austin Business Journal)
More vertical development could sprout just south of Lady Bird Lake, next door to one of the largest redevelopment projects in Austin.
A 330-foot office tower has been proposed along South Congress Avenue, replacing a Firestone Complete Auto Care, Bridgestone Tire Shop and River Spa Nail Salon located at the site, which spans 0.8 acres. Planning documents submitted to the city of Austin call for a 475,000-square-foot building, including 10,000 square feet of retail space, at 311-315 S. Congress Ave.
New York-based Tishman Speyer Properties LP is "actively exploring the potential acquisition and redevelopment" of the property, a company spokesperson confirmed. If it moves forward, the project would be the third major investment in Austin for Tishman, which operates in 30 markets across the world and manages a multibillion-dollar portfolio.
The proposed tower development would join a wave of development projects aimed at the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, led by Endeavor Real Estate Group's redevelopment of the former Austin-American-Statesman site — where a 19-acre mixed-use hub could eventually rise… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Are out-of-state buyers really driving up Austin housing prices? (Austin Business Journal)
The idea of the new-to-town buyer with “California money” driving up home prices in Austin has embedded itself into the region's housing narrative.
“I would say it’s a little more complicated than that,” said Realty Austin agent Elle Klein Garrison.
She works with a lot of out-of-state buyers and has seen firsthand the types of budgets many of these new residents are working with. Many of them, she said, are first-time homebuyers, meaning they don't have equity from selling a previous home to put into the Austin market. On average, her clients are spending in the $500,000 range, up to $1.5 million.
The median home price in the metro hit $499,995 in February, an all-time high for the area, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. This record sticker price is primarily the result of massive demand and persistently low supply in Central Texas — the metro had only 0.4 months of inventory last month, meaning that if new listings stopped, the number of available homes would run out in less than half a month.
But are out-of-state buyers significantly contributing to higher prices in the state? Experts from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University said probably not.
After analyzing migration patterns into the state and buyer behavior, researchers found no correlation between in-migration and appreciation over 15 years up to 2019.
Researchers relied on migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which has not yet released data for 2020-21. Because the data only goes up to 2019, Miller said it’s possible out-of-state buyers played a larger role in the pandemic-era housing market. Still, many real estate experts point out that most of the newcomers to Austin are coming from other parts of Texas. Depending on which study one reads, perhaps one or two out of your 10 new neighbors come from California, the state that traditionally funnels the most newcomers to the Lone Star State.
In the Austin metro, strong job creation points to more people moving into town during the pandemic. In 2021, more than 23,000 new jobs were announced in the metro, an all-time high according to data compiled by Opportunity Austin. High-profile headquarters relocations — including for Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) — portend a wave of new employees moving to the Austin capital… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas warns firms they could lose state contracts for divesting from fossil fuels (Texas Tribune)
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar sent letters to 19 financial firms Wednesday afternoon to determine whether they were violating a new state law that prohibits companies from “boycotting” fossil fuel companies.
Senate Bill 13, which went into effect in September, prohibits the state from contracting with or investing in companies that divest from oil, natural gas and coal companies. The law defines divestment as refusing to do business with a fossil fuel company because that company does not commit to environmental standards higher than expected by federal and state law.
Firms that received a letter include U.S.-based companies, like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Company, and foreign companies like Jupiter Fund Management PLC and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings, Inc… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson begin Monday. Here's what to expect (NPR)
Confirmation hearings begin Monday for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the federal judge President Biden has picked to fill Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's seat when he retires this summer.
Democrats are hoping to finish Jackson's confirmation process before Congress leaves for Easter recess April 11.
The hearings, led by the Senate Judiciary Committee, is set to last four days, with Jackson appearing in front of lawmakers during the first three. She'll give an opening statement on Monday and then take questions from lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday. After a period that typically lasts a week or so after the hearings to consider the nomination, the committee will then hold a vote, and if approved, will send the nomination to the full Senate for consideration.
If confirmed, Jackson will be the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She heads into the hearings with a vast and expansive career as a judge and attorney… (LINK TO FULL STORY)