Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

‘Power Panel’ at InterFace Event Provides Positive Outlook for Student Housing Sector Post-COVID-19

by John Nelson July 15, 2021

Moving toward the start of a fresh academic year, the outlook for the student housing industry keeps getting brighter. A testament to the industry’s movement out of the pandemic is taking place at the InterFace Student Housing conference in Austin, where nearly 1,300 attendees have been able to gather in-person for the first time since April 2019. This year’s event, which concludes today, is taking place at the JW Marriott downtown. The student housing sector banded together like never before in the face of COVID-19 and truly worked as a team throughout the pandemic, with the ultimate goal of keeping students as safe as possible. The sector’s resilience during the pandemic and optimism regarding the year ahead were the driving discussion points during the conference’s “Power Panel” on Wednesday, July 14, which brought together a consortium of high-level executives to discuss industry trends, their experiences with COVID-19 and the outlook for the upcoming academic year. “The past 18 months have been a whirlwind of uncertainty,” began moderator Peter Katz, executive director at Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap. “While our sector has been historically categorized as recession-resilient, we would all now claim it to be pandemic-resistant.” “Student …

July 15, 2021

Features Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

Property Tax Roundtable: Appraisers Adjust to the Pandemic With Procedural Changes

by John Nelson December 1, 2020

In early 2020, the rapidly unfolding pandemic threatened to derail Texas’ property tax assessment and appeal process. With stay-at-home orders being issued at the same time that appraisal districts were sending out initial values for 2020, uncertainty cast doubt on how the process would proceed, or even whether it would proceed at all. Taxing entities were concerned with revenue impacts, and taxpayers were concerned about their ability to pay. Texas launches the property tax cycle every Jan. 1 with a revaluation of property. In most jurisdictions, taxpayers expect to receive notices of appraised value sometime in April, with the deadline for protesting the appraised value typically falling in May. Under normal circumstances, these dates begin the property tax protest cycle for the year. On March 31, 2020, however, the “typical year” quickly became anything but. Appraisal districts faced the nearly impossible task of navigating an unprecedented scenario with limited time and resources. Their success in maintaining a functioning appeals process is a testament to the professionalism of the state’s chief appraisers and personnel and to the fundamental strength of Texas’ property tax system. We queried chief appraisers and commercial supervisors from several appraisal districts about their experiences from the past …

December 1, 2020

Content Partner Multifamily Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive Walker & Dunlop

Multifamily Developers in Houston Focus on Affordability

by Sarah Daniels September 2, 2020

With a historic drop in oil prices amid a global pandemic, fate dealt Houston a bad hand in 2020, to put it mildly. But this is not the first time the city has seen bleak conditions — and faced them down. In 2015-2016, the metropolitan area was throttled by a double whammy of an oil bust and the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods, decimating a full 10 percent of its multifamily housing stock. Yet, by 2020, the city’s job growth exceeded the national rate for the 25th consecutive month, and its multifamily market was set to deliver nearly 17,000 units, double the volume from 2019. Before the oil crash and COVID-19 pandemic hit, Houston’s increasingly diverse economy meant that its fundamentals were strong, and demand was growing for multifamily. Through hurricanes, floods, tornados, boom-and-bust cycles in the oil and gas markets and more, Houston persevered. Houston has one of largest metropolitan populations in the U.S. and is growing, adding more than a million people since 2010. This 2-percent-per-year average growth is more than twice the 0.7 percent average for the United States. Of the 10 largest metropolitan areas, only Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston have been able to grow at …

September 2, 2020

Features Industrial Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

Warehouse Sector Reaches New Heights as User Demand for Flexibility, Variation Increases

by Taylor Williams August 6, 2020

By Nazir Khalfe, Principal, Powers Brown Architecture Having designed multiple millions of square feet of speculative and build-to-suit industrial buildings in my career, I’ve witnessed some striking trends over the past two decades, especially with the advancements made in tilt-wall construction. The ability to go higher and store and ship more product with today’s technology is creating an ever-changing landscape for industrial product. We have witnessed the boom of e-commerce, advancements in logistics and automation, and all the while tried to keep up with the dynamic market forces that produce a successful industrial park. Since the Great Recession, demand for industrial space has been at a premium, not only in Texas but also in most markets throughout the United States. Out of necessity for how our lives are changing, the industrial market has become the darling of the real estate industry. In 2020, thanks to the exponential growth of e-commerce activity and manufacturing jobs, we are breaking new ground on how a standard industrial park looks, feels and operates. While COVID-19 has not changed the expansive, open-space feel of warehouses where social distancing is inherently built-in, the pandemic has started to impact the industrial world on the development side. Developers …

August 6, 2020

Features Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

Attention Texas Owners: Beware of Property Tax Increases During COVID-19

by Kristin Harlow July 28, 2020

By Darlene Sullivan, Popp Hutcheson PLLC As if a global economic contraction and an unfolding recession across the United States were not enough, many commercial real estate owners across Texas have seen their taxable property values increase this year. While many of these owners are calling for property tax relief to offset the financial burden they are suffering due to stay-at-home orders and business closures triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, they may be unsure of potential remedies to pursue or arguments to make. Given that the date of valuation is Jan. 1, 2020, property owners searching for relief are limited as to the information that appraisal districts will consider for this tax year. Potentially limited relief in 2020 does not mean taxpayers lack options, however. There are three key strategies that commercial property owners need to implement in 2020 if they want to maximize reductions in taxable value for this and future years. 1. Consider filing a 2020 appeal — even if the taxable value did not increase from the prior year. The state was already shutting down nonessential activities as appraisal districts were preparing to mail out their 2020 Notices of Appraised Value. Most appraisal districts delayed the mailings …

July 28, 2020

Content Partner Features Lument Multifamily RED Capital Group Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

Revenue Volatility: Friend or Foe to San Antonio Multifamily Investors?

by Sarah Daniels July 14, 2020

During the great multifamily bull market of this passing decade, investors became increasingly comfortable with exposure to highly volatile metropolitan markets. In an era when it was difficult to make a bad investment decision, the most lucrative were, in most cases, located in areas of the country known for their roller-coaster real estate cycles. Indeed, it seemed as though a purchase capitalization rate could never be too low if an asset was located in one of the primary markets. Volatility was an ally, not a foe — an investment feature, not a bug. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant recession, however, volatility appears to have switched allegiances. The winds now favor, perhaps, the stable, predictable tortoises over the high-flying hares. In high-cost markets, the number of renters considering relocating to more affordable area codes has skyrocketed, and in the work-from-home era, this has become more of an achievable goal than an inchoate urge. For example, the San Francisco Apartment Association reported that 7.5 percent of tenants in the city — where rents increased at a 6.1 percent compound annual rate since 2010 — simply broke their leases in the three months that ended in May, moving …

July 14, 2020

Austin multifamily occupancy rent growth

Content Partner Features Lument Multifamily RED Capital Group Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

Austin: The Right Place at the Right Time for Multifamily Sector

by Sarah Daniels July 8, 2020

“After COVID-19, nothing ever will be the same,” has become a common refrain these days. Perhaps for the next decade or so, every important life choice will be made with public health and safety concerns in mind — and the most commonly chosen solutions will be meaningfully different than before. Among the most fundamental life choices subject to this new scrutiny will be where to live, how to make a living and how to safely move about. Many Americans will opt for less densely populated neighborhoods, increased work-from-home opportunities and private transportation options. When the time arrives to put plans into action, however, most will elect to take small steps rather than a giant leap. Perhaps the high-rise apartment and subway ride to a co-working space can be sacrificed, but not at the expense of convenience, access to nightlife and entertainment and career prospects. Urbanity isn’t out of style, but its form will mutate. Some U.S. metros will struggle to adapt, including a few primary markets. Others seem to be attuned to the times, blessed with all of the now prized attributes already in place. None is more perfectly positioned than Austin. Austin checks all the boxes. It is less …

July 8, 2020

Features Retail Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

Innovative, Tech-Savvy Retailers Better Equipped to Survive, says Texas Panel

by Taylor Williams May 8, 2020

Brick-and-mortar retailers in Texas that have found creative ways to develop new income streams and to leverage technology to directly engage their customer bases have proven most resilient in battling the financial headwinds the sector faces as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. A panel of retail real estate professionals in Dallas and Austin spoke to this trend and others during the Texas Retail Reboot webinar, which was held on Thursday, May 7. Shopping Center Business and Texas Real Estate Business, two magazines published by Atlanta-based France Media Inc., hosted the event, which drew more than 600 registrants. The panelists’ insights, which touched on both past successes and future opportunities, were delivered roughly a week after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott approved a Phase I plan to reopen retail and restaurant establishments at reduced occupancies and with heightened sanitation guidelines. The webinar was also held less than 24 hours before the governor allowed service retailers like hair and nail salons to reopen. Tanya Hart Little, CEO of Dallas-based Hart Advisors Group, moderated the discussion. Hart Advisors Group also sponsored the event. Jennifer Pierson, co-owner of Dallas-based investment brokerage firm STRIVE, was the first panelist to identify this commonality among retailers that …

May 8, 2020

Features Heartland Feature Archive Northeast Feature Archive Restaurant Retail Southeast Feature Archive Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive Western Feature Archive

JLL: Coronavirus Is Impacting Retail Supply Chains

by Sarah Daniels March 12, 2020

With the stock market dropping to lows unprecedented since the Great Recession on Monday and the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the outbreak of COVID-19 a pandemic, concerns are now rising regarding coronavirus’ long-term impact on domestic investments. But will the disease have any impact on brick-and-mortar retail? According to a research report from JLL, while retail supply chains have already been affected, the health of retail as whole depends heavily on how long the pandemic lasts. Certain sectors have already been impacted, and those in the industry can model their current economic outlook on the course SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) took in 2003. However, whether that model will hold as the pandemic evolves remains to be seen. The JLL report explains that the type of short-lived and limited outbreak created by SARS mainly affects the “first and second quarters with many retailers feeling impacts of a disrupted supply chain, but with a subsequent rebound in the following quarters.” Sectors already affected include inventory and complex supply lines. Chinese-manufactured goods may not be able to reach retailers in the coming weeks to months, as the retailers’ existing supply diminishes. Fashion stocks, especially for luxury retailers dependent on Chinese consumers …

March 12, 2020

Conference Coverage Features Multifamily Student Housing Texas Texas & Oklahoma Feature Archive

How to Maximize Student Housing Lease Conversions Through Social Media, Digital Marketing

by Kristin Harlow October 3, 2019

DALLAS — When it comes to attracting the attention of students — and, more specifically, Generation Z — maintaining a positive and unique social media and digital marketing presence is critical. Most owners and operators of student housing today are pushing marketing dollars toward creating a digital brand in hopes of attracting a greater number of lease conversions. As an owner or operator, how do you allocate the right amount of funding to this segment of the business? And how do you know if it’s actually working? A panel of owners, operators and digital marketing strategists weighed in on this topic during the session, “How to Convince Owners/Operators to Allocate Budget to Social Media and Digital Marketing & How to Report and Validate Results and Maximize Conversions,” at the second annual LeaseCon: A Social Media, Digital & Traditional Marketing Boot Camp, held at The Westin Galleria in Dallas in September. Achieving optimal digital marketing results begins with transparent data on what works, and what doesn’t. “It’s really important to choose a digital marketing partner that is going to be as transparent as possible,” says Brian Garrigan, head of sales for the central U.S. at Simpli.fi. “A lot of organizations will …

October 3, 2019

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