Kacie Kell

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram by Caty Hirst

Arlington and Fort Worth are two of the top cities for Generation Yers to live, with Arlington ranking No. 2 and Fort Worth No. 12 because of cheap living, growing job markets and trendy activities to keep the younger crowd busy. The study by Vocativ, a media company based in New York, looked at job markets, cost of living, public transit, diversity and “lifestyle metrics,” such as availability of live music and the cost to dine out, to rank the best cities for people 35 and younger to live. Arlington finished No. 2 because “literally everything is cheap in Arlington” and entertainment is readily available, the report says. The one thing Arlington doesn’t have, the report jokes, is kombucha (a fermented black or green tea). But “with what Arlingtoners save on rent, they can afford to have it [kombucha] delivered from L.A., on foot.”

“Go see a Cowboys game, go to a country show — do anything. You have all the money,” the report says. Ashley Peña, a senior at the University of Texas at Arlington who moved to town five years ago from West Texas, vouched for the findings. “I definitely agree with the cheap rent. There is very affordable housing around here,” she said. Being centrally located is another plus for the 22-year-old, who will graduate in May and is already looking for jobs in Arlington. “One of the biggest things I love about Arlington, it’s right in the middle of Fort Worth and Dallas,” Peña said. “You have the best of both cities without being immersed in them every day.” Fort Worth roped the No. 12 spot not only because of good jobs, cheap gas and affordable living but also because “areas like the West Seventh Street Corridor and Sundance Square are becoming hipster-fied.” “And the stunning Kimbell Art Museum is a work of art in and of itself. Sushi and vegan cupcakes — clearly, this ain’t the same Texas as before,” the report says. Mayor Betsy Price said the report is good news to a city working to appeal to the up-and-coming generation.

“The chamber did a study on young folks and Fort Worth’s ability to attract them, and we were hemorrhaging young folks,” Price said. “They just weren’t staying here. They were going to Dallas and Austin and all these places, and so everyone started a strong focus on the young people.” Price’s efforts to reach the younger crowd include SteerFW, a young professionals group engaging in civic service. “The south side has really grown. West Seventh has really grown. The food choices have changed. And of course we have Steer Fort Worth,” Price said. “I just think it is great. We have great jobs and a low cost of living.” The report cites other Texas cities, with Austin at No. 5, Dallas at No. 14, Lubbock at No. 15 and Houston at No. 16. Irving, Plano and Garland were also in the top 35. “The Lone Star State has cheap rent, gas and Wi-Fi, a ton of young people and a booming economy,” according to the report.

 
THE TOP 10 CITIES
1. New York

2. Arlington

3. San Francisco

4. Denver

5. Austin

6. Minneapolis

7. Seattle

8. St. Paul, Minn.

9. Madison, Wis.

10. Portland, Ore.

Source: Vocativ

The ICSC Texas Conference and Deal Making is held annually and is a great opportunity for owners, developers, retailers, brokers, lenders, municipalities, property asset managers and product and service providers to gather under one roof to exhibit, make deals and form successful business partnerships. David B. Pettit from David Pettit Economic Development LLC will serve as a moderator during the event and is currently a member of the State Leadership Team as ICSC Texas Alliance Private Sector Co-Chair. For more details about the event, visit: ICSC Texas Conference and Deal Making

From the Fort Worth Business Press

According to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2015 report, just co-published by PwC US and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Dallas-Fort Worth ranks No. 5, with two other Texas cities, Houston and Austin ranking at No. 1 and 2 respectively. San Francisco ranks No. 3 and Denver No. 4. According to the report, Dallas-Fort Worth’s growth rate may be more sustainable than Houston’s owing to the area’s economic diversity. The report states: “The [Dallas-Fort Worth] market continues to be attractive to real estate investors because of its strong job growth, which benefits from the low cost of living and doing business. Single-family housing in the market is the highest ranked property sector – and it also has the highest ranked industrial sector (number four) among the top five markets from this year’s survey.”

 
The sustained performance of the U.S. commercial real estate industry in general is expected to continue in 2015, fueled by improving fundamentals and continued investor appetite – both domestic and foreign, according to the report.
“Unlike previous reports and previous cycles, we are seeing sustained growth,” said Mitch Roschelle, partner, U.S. real estate advisory practice leader, PwC. “In the past several years, we reported that real estate market participants’ main fears revolved around the uncertainty with the economy. Now, the trepidation in their eyes has more to do with the ability of the growing real estate markets to adapt to a series of mega trends impacting society and the global economy. These mega trends include accelerating urbanization, demographic shifts and the impact of distributive technological advancements.”

A snapshot of the top five markets ranked by survey respondents and their outlook for each market:

Houston – Houston offers a significant amount of investment opportunity. Investors believe that the energy industry will continue to drive market growth and that will support real estate activity in 2015. Houston was ranked number one in both investment and development expectations for next year; housing market expectations are ranked number two.

 
Austin – Interviewees like the industrial base, the appeal to the millennial generation, and the lower cost of doing business in Austin. The market was a top choice for both the office sector and the single-family housing sector and the number two ranked market for retail. Interviewees are also attracted to Austin’s diverse employee base, and the market is an example of “jobs chasing people.”

 
San Francisco – The decline from the number one spot last year, according to surveyed participants, is due more to growth in the other cities than any identifiable flaw in the San Francisco market. The strong local economy and improved domestic and international travel have made San Francisco the number one choice for hotel investment in 2015. Respondents ranked the office market number three and the retail market number four.

 
Denver – Denver joins Austin and San Francisco as markets popular with the millennial generation. Denver’s industry exposure to the technology and energy industries has also attracted investor interest. The results of the survey put Denver retail at number five and office at number six.

 
Dallas/Fort Worth – Interviewees raise the possibility that despite being ranked lower than Houston, the economic diversity could make the current growth rate more sustainable in Dallas/Fort Worth.

For a copy of the report: Full Report

Waterside is a new 63-acre master planned development that will offer a walkable mixed-use district with an unmatched amenity package, including the Grove, our signature public space featuring several heritage trees, multiple outdoor seating venues, hi-tech amenities, children and adult play areas and much more. Whole Foods Market will open a 45,000 SF store, the first in Fort Worth, which will include features unique to Waterside and tailored to the local community. Plans for Waterside include 175,000-200,000 SF of retail space and riverside restaurants, 20 acres of multi-family and townhomes, 200,000 SF of office space, and a signature hotel site.

From the Fort Worth Business Press by A. Lee Graham

DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse), Men’s Wearhouse and Sleep Experts are the latest retailers to open shops at Alliance Town Center in north Fort Worth. DSW has leased 15,000 square feet at the shopping center. Men’s Wearhouse leased 5,500 suare feet, and the opening of Sleep Experts’ 4,500-square-foot store at the center marks its 45th retail location. “Alliance Town Center has seen tremendous growth and remains one the most successful centers in North Texas,” said Terry Montesi, CEO of project developer Trademark Property Co., commenting in a news release. “This market-dominant center continues to build on its great merchandising mix and top tier sales performance, Montesi said.

Men’s Wearhouse, DSW, and Sleep Experts join more than 130 retailers, restaurants and entertainment options at Alliance Town Center. But more are on the way, with Sheplers Western Wear expected to open this fall, and Best Contacts and Eyeglasses scheduled to open in early 2015. Meanwhile, Trademark continues pre-leasing for the center’s “Main Street” lifestyle expansion. It is tentatively scheduled to open in spring 2016 and will feature an estimated 175,000 square feet of new specialty retail and restaurants, as well as a hotel. When complete, Alliance Town Center will be home to 1.15 million square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment. More information is available atwww.alliancetowncenter.com.

From Wallet Hub by Richie Bernardo

Some cities have it all: the jobs, the schools, the museums, the nightlife, you name it. They know the recipe for attractiveness. People come, and they stay — sometimes for good. But other cities like Detroit are still mired in recession. Chances of soon turning upward are slim. And their most productive citizens, an economy’s best chance of recovery, search for greener pastures.

In 2013, the United States experienced its lowest population gain since the Great Depression. Growth stood at .72 percent, largely in contrast with the 5 percent of the 1990s, a period of prosperity. Demographer William H. Frey of the Brookings Institution attributed the decline to the economic downturn. Not only did the crisis deter job-seeking migrants from flocking to the U.S., but it also discouraged couples from having children. Meanwhile, movement took place domestically. Population numbers shifted. Some cities grew while others pushed out even more residents.

WalletHub identified the cities that have expanded most rapidly in socio-economic terms between 2008 and 2013. We analyzed 516 U.S. cities of varying sizes across 10 key metrics, ranging from population growth rate to unemployment rate decrease. The full results of the study can be seen here:  Wallet Hub – 2014’s Fastest Growing Cities

From the Fort Worth Business Press by Scott Nishimura

A proposed mixed-use residential and commercial complex on a Trinity Railway Express parking lot bordered by downtown Fort Worth and the Near Southside would cost about $60 million, a panel of architects and developers estimated Tuesday. About 75 percent of that could be covered by a loan, leaving a $15 million financing gap that could be covered by available city bond funds, money from a tax increment finance district, and federal funds, the panel said. The proposed project – as envisioned by the panel after a two-day design workshop conducted by the Urban Land Institute for the Fort Worth T, Fort Worth Housing Authority, city, and Fort Worth South economic development nonprofit – could have two buildings fronting West Vickery, including a 10-story one with apartments, first-floor commercial, and parking. The proposed project requirements, as given to the panel for the workshop, would include 250 one and two-bedroom apartments, 625 parking spaces for transit users, residents, and customers of the commercial space, and more than 30,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

Fifty one percent of the apartments would be available to residents earning 80 percent of area median income or less – up to $42,150 for a couple and $36,900 for one person. The project also would likely be owned by the Housing Authority, said Ramon Guajardo, a consultant to the Housing Authority on the project. The 51 percent threshold and public ownership would allow the project to retain tax-exempt status, which would slash its operating costs in half, David Pettit, a member of the panel, said. Under preliminarily discussions, The T, owner of the site, would continue to own the land, and the Housing Authority would own the improvements, Guajardo said in an interview after the presentation. The Housing Authority could act as the developer or bring one in on a fee-only basis, he said. The timetable isn’t clear yet, he said. “There is a $15 million gap that needs to be addressed,” he said. “Nobody has a checkbook to write that.”

But the major stakeholders, which earlier this year decided to move ahead with the design workshop, view the timing as good for developing the 2.1-acre site, at the northwest corner of South Main Street and West Vickery Boulevard and bordered on the north by Interstate 30 and a pedestrian tunnel to T&P Station. Downtown’s popularity continues to push to the south, the Near Southside is rapidly redeveloping, and T&P’s train and bus connections and future terminus of the TexRail downtown-Dallas/Fort Worth Airport route make the site a strong one for transit-oriented development, they said. Moreover, the site’s adjacency to the growing, historic South Main Urban Village means the mixed-use development can be a catalyst to the future, pedestrian-friendly redevelopment, they said.
 Next steps would be a formal agreement between the T and Housing Authority, a Housing Authority request for proposals from developers, and hunt for funding. The architects and developers spent the last two days holed up inside the Amphibian Stage Productions building on South Main interviewing stakeholders, reviewing data and sketching out 3-D massing drawings of what the site could look like. Buildings in the drawings feature no architectural detail, but include all of the required uses presented to the panel, which unveiled their results to a full house of visitors Tuesday night at night at Amphibian.The panel envisioned what the corridor from West Lancaster Street through the T&P Lofts and down its tunnel to the train tracks and farther south to the parking lot could look like as transit use builds in the future, with more restaurants and bars and even food carts in the tunnel. “We’re trying to create a project that will look to the future,” Michael Bennett, of the Bennett Benner Partners architecture firm and a panelist, said. The panel proposed a 10-story building and smaller two or three-story building.

The two buildings would front Vickery and face each other across a pedestrian-friendly street coming off Vickery, and leading to existing transit parking beneath the I-30 overpass. The residential portion of the larger building would be built on top of a 205,000-square-foot podium garage, with first-floor commercial on Vickery. The podium would elevate the residential portion of the building, to minimize obstructed views from the I-30 overpass. The garage would include underground and above-ground parking – 300 spaces for a transit park and ride and 325 for residents and retail customers. One of the project requirements will be to replace all of the 100 spaces it removes, and add more for residents, retail customers, and users of the district. An “amenity deck” on top of the garage would include a swimming pool, green space, and trees. The ground floor commercial space would ideally be taken by retailers, the panelists said, but they acknowledged there’s demand for small office space. Fitness and other services are possiblities, as is “live-work” space, they said. T buses, which run loops from Vickery, through the existing parking lot, and back onto Vickery, would pick up and drop passengers on Vickery under the panelists’ plan. The panel’s team of “number crunchers” estimated the average square footage of the apartments at 850. The affordable rents would run at $1.18 per square foot, and the market rate apartments at $1.55, for gross annual rents of $3.7 mlllion, they estimated.

From the Star-Telegram by Sandra Baker

Plans are moving forward to build apartments and possibly some shops on a 2-acre tract along Vickery Boulevard that currently serves as a parking lot for the T&P Station. Talked about for more than a decade, the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, which owns the land, partnered with the Fort Worth Housing Authority about a year ago to develop the property. The agencies, along with city staff and representatives from Fort Worth South, will take part in a two-day workshop next week run by the North Texas chapter of the Urban Land Institute in an effort to prod the project along. An eight-member panel headed by Donald Gatzke, dean of the University of Texas at Arlington’s architecture school, will include four other architects and three developers. The workshop will be held Aug. 25-26 at the Amphibian Theater, 120 S. Main St. The public can see their presentation at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26.

Dana Burghdoff, Fort Worth’s deputy planning director, said the group will have an intensive two days, interviewing stakeholders and a group of South Main Street property owners, and then working on a design. The workshop format is used by the land institute nationwide, she said. Panelists will look at other near south-side developments and consider constraints to the site to create a proposal that will complement the historic T&P Lofts and the T&P Warehouse buildings. The project will likely involve two buildings for 150 to 200 one- and two-bedroom apartments, with commercial uses on the first floor, she said. “Ideally, the Housing Authority sees the first floor as being for commercial use, whether that’s a day care or for some services like a coffee shop or dry cleaner,” Burghdoff said. The Housing Authority would lease the property from the The T. The property is just to the south of the T&P Lofts, west of Main Street. The T&P Station serves the Trinity Railway Express and will be a terminus for TEX Rail, the 27-mile commuter rail project for Tarrant County. The panel will also explore funding options and options for replacing about 300 surface parking spots for commuters, said Mike Brennan, planning director for Fort Worth South, a nonprofit advocacy group. Brennan said the workshop format was selected because it involves the community at an early stage and the approach involves a broad range of expertise.

Photo by Robert Francis

From the Fort Worth Business Press by Scott Nishimura

Sundance Square’s two newest commercial buildings, open since last year, are 90 and 97 percent occupied, CEO Johnny Campbell told City Council members Tuesday. The Westbrook Building is 90 percent occupied, with 3,815 square feet of retial in one space and 3,286 square feet of office space on the first floor available, Campbell said in updating the council the Sundance Plaza, which opened in November. “We have a first right of refusal” in on the office space, and “we have two retailers who are arguing at the moment per who gets the (retail) space at the corner,” Campbell said. Sundance’s Commerce Building is 97 percent occupied, with 2,470 square feet of available space left on the second floor. Campbell attributed the strength of leasing to the surging popularity of the Sundance area since the one-acre plaza opened. Retail sales in Sundance Square, the 35-block mixed-use district owned by Fort Worth’s Bass family, are up more than 20 percent so far this year, Campbell said. “That’s a million dollars a month in retail sales,” Campbell said.

And The Cheesecake Factory, which is due to open in the first half of December, is “a $10-million-a-year restaurant anywhere on the planet Earth,” he said. He also noted that this year’s figures don’t include sales from Barnes & Noble, which closed earlier this year. Campbell reeled off a litany of statistics on Sundance Plaza, which has given downtown a central meeting and programming spot. An estimated 6,500 people, for example, showed up for a New Year’s Eve fete, “with almost nothing in the way of advertising,” he said. Movie nights in the plaza have drawn an average 4,000 people per week over 10 weeks, 10 times the old average, he said. Sundance’s relationship with ESPN, which used Sundance as its broadcast center for Super Bowl XLV and the NCAA Final Four earlier this year, continues to grow. ESPN is bringing its College GameDay broadcast to Sundance to open and close the college football season this year. The opener will be conneced to the Florida State-Oklahoma State Aug. 30 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. “They’d like to see a 10,000-person crowd,” Campbell said. The close will be the first-ever college National Championship Game, Jan. 12 at AT&T Stadium. “They’re saying they are having a bigger production than they had for the Super Bowl,” Campbell said. One big difference: ESPN has the broadcast rights for the game; it did not for the Super Bowl. “When we see those cutaway views, we’re going to be looking at Fort Worth, and that’s big stuff for the city,” Campbell said. On Sundance’s ongoing study of a boutique hotel on the east side of downtown, Campbell said in an interview, “we’re still doing a lot of background study work.”​

From the Dallas Business Journal by Nicholas Sakelaris

In a sign of the times for the Barnett Shale, Chesapeake Energy  sold its Fort Worth headquarters to Hines and will consolidate its employees onto the 20th floor, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Taking the other 19 floors will be Pier 1 Imports, the Fort Worth-based home décor retailer that originally built that building and used it as its headquarters, the Star-Telegram reports. Pier 1 is taking over 313,000 square feet of space and the building will be renamed the Pier 1 Imports Building. Terms of the sale to Hines were not disclosed. Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake put the building on the market in 2012. Earlier this year, Chesapeake announced that it expected to sell off $650 million in real estate and non-drilling related assets in 2014. “Through this sale, Chesapeake continues its strategy of divesting non-core assets to optimize operational efficiency and focus on our business of energy exploration and production,” Gordon Pennoyer, a Chesapeake spokesman, told the Star-Telegram.

Chesapeake, which ran its Barnett Shale drilling operations out of that building for the past decade, got hit hard by the drop in natural gas prices that hit in 2008 and never really recovered. Chesapeake at one time had 400 people working there, the Star-Telegram reported. Last year, Chesapeake confirmed it had laid off 86 people from its Barnett Shale operation. Chesapeake pulled its name off the building last week. “We are delighted about this new affiliation with Hines and look forward to a long partnership,” Alex Smith, Pier 1’s president and CEO, told the Star-Telegram. “Pier 1 has been associated with Fort Worth for more than 50 years and our associates are committed to our community.”