BG Reads | News You Need to Know (October 28, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council approves ordinances to strengthen renters’ rights (Austin Monitor)
City Council approved two ordinances Thursday enshrining the right of tenants to organize and to remedy lease violations prior to eviction.As rents in Austin continue to rise, tenant advocates say the ordinances are increasingly necessary to help prevent eviction and to allow tenants to collectively demand better living conditions and fair treatment from landlords.
The ordinances have been under negotiation in recent weeks, as Council members have sought compromise between tenant advocates and real estate industry stakeholders. On Thursday, organizations including the Austin Apartment Association, Austin Board of Realtors, Austin Justice Coalition and BASTA, a tenant advocacy group, were able to reach a compromise on key aspects of the policies.
Stakeholders disagreed on the “right to cure” period, which gives tenants a chance to correct lease violations, including late payments, after being served a notice of proposed eviction. Tenant advocates supported a 21-day right-to-cure period, while the Austin Apartment Association opposed any right to cure… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin builders couldn’t finish homes fast enough. Now their product Is piling up. (The Wall Street Journal)
For Austin, Texas, home-builder Leonard Bullard, late 2020 and early 2021 felt like a California gold rush.
As out-of-state buyers flocked to the Texas capital, Mr. Bullard’s firm Urban ATX operated at maximum capacity, scooping up dirt and building luxury homes as fast as it could. At one point, Mr. Bullard had 55 homes above $2 million in the pipeline. Now, he’s down to 25 in various stages of development and wants to cut that number in half amid a market slowdown.
“I haven’t bought a piece of property since the spring,” said Mr. Bullard, who, like other luxury builders in Austin, is facing the harsh reality of a market with too much expensive real estate available and too few buyers.
Considered one of the hottest real-estate markets in the country just a few months ago, Austin saw its luxury home sales plunge 37.6% during the three months ended August 31, compared with the prior year, according to data from real-estate brokerage Redfin. By comparison, U.S. luxury home sales fell 28.1% during the period… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Cruise opens robotaxi waitlist in Austin and Phoenix (Tech Crunch)
Cruise, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle subsidiary, is now inviting potential passengers in Phoenix and Austin to join the waitlist to be among the first Cruise robotaxi passengers.
The company has been operating a fully driverless commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco since June, with fully driverless meaning there’s no human safety operator behind the wheel. Last month, Cruise announced plans to add Austin, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona to its resume. During GM’s third quarter earnings call, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company remains on track to complete its first commercial driverless public rides and deliveries by the end of the year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Kilroy halts construction on Stadium Tower in North Austin (Austin Business Journal)
There’s a gaping hole at the site of North Austin’s planned Stadium Tower, where Los Angeles-based developer Kilroy Realty Corp. has halted construction on the project.
"We intend to hold off on the construction of Stadium Tower, our Austin development site, until the economy gives us more confidence or we pre-lease a substantial portion of the project," Bill Hutcheson, Kilroy’s senior vice president of investor relations and capital markets, told investors on an Oct. 26 earnings call. He did not specify any benchmarks for leasing or the economy to restart the project… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
Texas DPS chief Steve McCraw says his agency “did not fail” at Uvalde school shooting (Texas Tribune)
Weeks after Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said he would resign if his troopers had “any culpability” in the botched police response to the Uvalde school shooting, he told families calling for his resignation Thursday that the agency has not failed as an institution.
“If DPS as an institution — as an institution — failed the families, failed the school or failed the community of Uvalde, then absolutely I need to go,” McCraw said during a heated Public Safety Commission meeting. “But I can tell you this right now: DPS as an institution, right now, did not fail the community — plain and simple.”
McCraw made the remark during a frazzled nearly 15 minutes of comments after several families of the 19 children who were killed spoke during the meeting’s public hearing portion. Two teachers were also killed during the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tony Gonzales becomes first major Republican to call for DPS Director Steve McCraw to resign (Texas Tribune)
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, who represents Uvalde, on Thursday became the first major Republican to call for the resignation of Steve McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety, for his agency’s response to an elementary school shooting in the city that left 19 children and two adults dead and captured the attention of a nation for its failed law enforcement response.
“DPS Director McCraw should RESIGN immediately,” Gonzales said on Twitter.
His comments followed a meeting of the Public Safety Commission, which oversees DPS, at which McCraw insisted the agency had not failed the city of Uvalde. Last month, McCraw said publicly that he would resign if DPS troopers who responded to the shooting had “any culpability… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Fujifilm Diosynth breaks ground on $300M biotech plant expansion near Texas A&M (Houston Chronicle)
A $300 million expansion of medical manufacturing facility near Texas A&M University could help to further bolster efforts to turn Texas into a biotech hub. Fujifilm Diosynth, maker of the Nvovax coronavirus vaccine and medical devices, broke ground this week on a expansion of its College Station campus that will double its advanced therapy and vaccine manufacturing capacity in the U.S. once complete in 2024. Located about 100 miles northwest of Houston, the College Station plant will become one of the largest single-use medical device manufacturing campuses in North America once the expansion is complete, according to Fujifilm Diosynth. Coupled with burgeoning biomanufacturing and life sciences sectors in Houston, the project is among several that economic developers hope will continue to put Texas on the map as an emerging cluster of biotech innovation.
“The economic impact of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ new facility in College Station will be immense for Texas,” said Adriana Cruz, executive director of Texas Economic Development and Tourism in a statement. “Not only is it a significant capital investment creating 150 new skilled jobs, it will also strengthen Texas’ expertise in biotech and life sciences.” Fujifilm Diosynth, a partnership between Fujifilm and Mitsubishi Corp., is a contract development and manufacturing company. It provides drug development, viral gene therapies, vaccines and biopharmaceuticals manufacturing in partnership with pharmaceutical firms. Fujifilm’s 300,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in College Station is near the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus. In 2020, Texas A&M and Fujifilm together were selected for a $265 million contract to produce a coronavirus vaccine at Fujifilm’s facility in College Station. Fujifilm's produced the Novavax vaccine for two years, but now the U.S.-based contract is complete and instead the company is producing Novavax from its site in the United Kingdom, a spokesperson said this week. The College Station site was considered a strong contender in the company's search for a place to build a new $2 billion facility, but ultimately Fujifilm chose North Carolina for the project instead. Although Texas lost the investment for the larger project, Fujifilm is still investing in upgrading its College Station campus. First, there was a smaller, 60,000-square-foot, $55 million addition to the Texas campus with a facility known as the Advance Therapies Innovation Center that officially opened that center in November 2021, a spokeswoman previously said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Episode 168: Market Talk - Lobbying in Philadelphia with Mustafa Rashed of Bellevue Strategies
Today's episode (168) features a discussion on entrepreneurship and lobbying with Mustafa Rashed, Founder and President, of Philadelphia-based Bellevue Strategies.
He and Bingham Group CEO A.J. also discuss current municipal issues in the Philadelphia market.
Enjoyed this episode? Please like, share, and comment!