By Taylor Williams The American office market remains awash in change as both tenants and landlords continue to grapple with now-familiar quandaries, from devising ideal hybrid work schedules to rightsizing inventory to putting forth the best mix of amenities, all while negotiating down to the last nickel of rent and last day of term. There are no right or wrong answers to these dilemmas outside of what works best for a particular company or building. Aside from flight to quality, there are very few common denominators across the spectrum of office usage from the tenant perspective. And aside from certain “must have” amenities and features, from the landlord perspective, there is no one-size-fits-all formula for wooing tenants back into buildings. For Texas cities with growing populations and well-located, obsolete office buildings, there are rarely obvious, cost-effective options for revitalizing or converting those structures. And above all else, there’s not a lot of clarity on the future of office utilization as a whole. So in the meantime, all that tenants and landlords — and their brokers — can do is try to make the smartest deal possible based on the information they have today. “In today’s market, every deal has …
Market Reports
AUSTIN, TEXAS — By any objective, outside-looking-in metric, the Austin industrial market is currently overbuilt, but brokers who are on the inside looking out say that the narrative is more nuanced than the numbers suggest. According to CBRE’s fourth-quarter 2025 market report, the marketwide vacancy rate was 20.4 percent at the end of last year, which represented a 10.9 percent increase from the third quarter of 2025. Approximately 3.4 million square feet of new space was delivered in the fourth quarter as part of 9.5 million square feet of new construction that came on line year-to-date, per CBRE, while fourth-quarter net absorption was less than 500,000 square feet. Qualitatively, the report concluded that the year-end vacancy rate was “an all-time high,” while 2025 was “one of the busiest years for development in market history.” The Austin industrial market has traditionally differed from those of its sprawling Texas counterparts — Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Houston — which have seen numerous massive projects built and absorbed over the past decade. Industrial deals and projects in the state capital have historically trended smaller, though that has changed somewhat in recent years as two tech giants — Tesla and Samsung — have planted massive …
By Taylor Williams AUSTIN, TEXAS — A successful real estate strategy for both developers and operators looking to penetrate Austin’s airtight retail market must involve both a long-term growth plan and a site selection process that primarily targets suburban areas. Austin’s sizzling pace of population growth has slowed in the past year or two, but the state capital remains highly undersupplied in terms of housing. Land and other development costs have become frightfully expensive within the urban core, and like other Texas markets, Austin is emerging from a multifamily building boom within its urban core and first-ring suburbs. In addition, vacant, quality retail space within those areas of Austin is a rare commodity. Earlier this year, the Austin-American Statesman, citing data from Weitzman, reported that Austin had a marketwide retail vacancy rate of just 3 percent at the end of 2025. And according to a first-quarter 2025 report from Partners Real Estate, Austin’s retail occupancy rate has not dipped below 95 percent at any point in the past decade. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. As such, …
By Taylor Williams The results of Texas Real Estate Business’ annual reader forecast survey are in, and they paint a somewhat surprising picture of an optimistic business outlook for the new year. Why surprising? Well, geopolitically speaking, 2026 has already picked up right where 2025 left off. The Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife in early January touched off a fresh source of geopolitical angst. The administration then subsequently ratcheted up its preexisting talk about Greenland becoming part of the United States, including issuing a threat to impose more tariffs on European countries that opposed that plan. Editor’s note: In mid-November, Texas Real Estate Business sent email invitations to participate in the annual online survey to three separate groups — brokers; developers, owners and managers; and lenders and financial intermediaries. The survey was held open through mid-December. Invitations to participate were also included in the Texas Real Estate Business e-newsletter, as well as through ReBusinessOnline.com. The tariff threat has since been walked back, but it’s hardly an understatement to say that the first month of 2026 has been rocky in terms of geopolitics. And when that happens, it’s anyone’s guess as to just how rattled markets …
Editor’s note: (As of the publication of this article, Adam Gottschalk is no longer affiliated with STRIVE) By Taylor Williams The industry adage that “every deal is different” has never been an exaggeration or cop-out excuse for explaining trends and transactions — or lack thereof — in commercial real estate. It’s a simple fact that actually speaks to the nuanced, innovative and challenging structures and processes that permeate dealmaking in this business. The expression is especially applicable to investment sales and particularly convenient to invoke in times of rapidly shifting market and economic conditions. Therefore, a quasi-blanket statement that, all other factors behind held equal, Texas retail owners have minimal reason to sell right now must be evaluated in that context. As with any large sample size, there will always be multiple exceptions to the rule, and there will always be deals being brought to market as a function of an owner’s unique personal or capital situation(s). But by and large, outside of those scenarios, sources say that Texas retail owners don’t need to force things. “Unless there’s a life or a capital event — debt coming due or not wanting to add fresh equity to a deal — that …
By Taylor Williams “Economic development is the process of improving the economic well-being and quality of life for a community or nation through strategies like job creation, infrastructure development and advancements in education and health.” That’s the first sentence of the AI-driven overview that results from a simple Google search of the term “economic development.” And admittedly, that’s a very good start. Economic development is rooted in economics, a field that embodies the study of business, industry, jobs and wealth. The Google definition also pays tribute to the behind-the-scenes infrastructural work that is required to jumpstart and sustain most business endeavors, particularly regarding commercial real estate. And lastly, it covers what which may be the most important, end-all goal of economic development work: elevated quality of life for the people who live in, work at and patronize those commercial establishments. It’s that last part of the definition that appears to represent a growing niche and focal point within the spectrum of economic development work in Texas. Quality-of-life initiatives can be manifested in an array ofcommercial settings: housing, entertainment, food-and-beverage, hospitality. And as economic development professionals embrace many different roles — ambassadors of their communities, liaisons with developers and business owners, …
By Joshua Metzger, studio director, principal, Gensler The Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2026 publication jointly released by PwC and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) found that North Texas benefitted from more than 100 corporate headquarters relocations between 2018 and 2024, drawn by a business-friendly climate, robust infrastructure and a growing talent pool. The launch of the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE), Nasdaq Texas and the reincorporation of the New York Stock Exchange’s regional office from Chicago to Dallas as NYSE Texas are further cementing the area’s status as a financial powerhouse. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Charles Schwab and Fidelity are among the top employers in North Texas, while Wells Fargo recently opened a new $455 million campus in Las Colinas. All this momentum and more has made Y’all Street — the moniker used to contrast Texas’ growing market to Wall Street — the second-largest financial services market in the country, trailing only New York City. The sublease availability of office space in Dallas has dropped to 3.6 percent of total inventory, signaling strong demand and confidence in the market. The Dallas neighborhoods of Uptown and Turtle Creek are bracing for a surge in development, while suburban mixed-use projects continue to thrive. …
By Taylor Williams Although the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) industrial market is, objectively speaking, currently overbuilt, the recovery and return to healthy dynamics is already taking shape. As that unfolds, manufacturing facilities are having a moment. According to CBRE’s research, between 2021 and 2023 — the height of the post-COVID e-commerce craze that coincided with the last days of historically low interest rates — developers in DFW added nearly 130 million square feet of new industrial product. The supply boom mostly involved warehouse and distribution facilities, and absorption of new deliveries was coming along until this spring, when Liberation Day injected a staggering dose of economic uncertainty into the market. In recent weeks, leasing activity has begun to pick back up. But investors looking to deploy capital into industrial assets see more upside on deals for manufacturing facilities at the moment, whether that means buying existing plants with heavy built-in power sources or targeting distribution buildings that can support manufacturing through light conversions. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. At the annual DFW/North Central Texas Industrial conference that …
By Jamee Jolly, president and CEO, The Real Estate Council With record population growth and a $2.7 trillion economy, Texas faces mounting pressure to expand its housing supply and affordability. New legislation from the 89th legislative session gives developers, cities and investors new tools to build sustainable communities through stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors. From established patterns of corporate relocations, job creation and direct foreign investment to fostering emerging industries like renewable energy, semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace and financial services, Texas has a long history of economic strength, industry diversification and innovation. That track record makes it one of the nation’s premier destinations for both businesses and residents. Last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, Texas led the nation in population growth for the 14th consecutive year, adding more than 560,000 people to reach over 31 million statewide. In North Texas, the population in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) alone is expected to grow from 8 million to 12 million residents by 2050. While this growth fuels one of the world’s largest economies, it has also created a shortage of more than 320,000 homes and a rising challenge of housing affordability statewide, particularly at the entry-level price point, where …
Once upon a time, not so long ago, an industrial developer in Texas could pick an appropriately zoned spot on the map, throw up four walls and a roof, slap a few utilities in place and reasonably expect multiple tenants to quickly reach out and express a willingness to pay healthy rent for that space. That’s a colorful and simplified view of the pinnacle of the post-COVID Texas industrial market, but it’s not a farcical take. Between roughly early 2021 and mid-2023, phrases like “record-breaking,” “gangbusters” and “never seen anything like it,” were routinely used by brokers and owners alike to describe the state of industrial tenant demand. Combined with cheap debt and available equity, the ferocious need for warehouse, distribution and manufacturing space sparked absorption of older buildings and fresh capitalizations of new projects across all major markets. Tenants needed space yesterday, and supply chain disruptions — for developers and tenants — were simply a cost of doing business. And business was very, very good. Business is still good today. But the development landscape has undoubtedly shifted while the capital markets that govern said landscape have invariably cooled. New development, particularly in terms of equity, is significantly harder to …
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