AUSTIN | Economic Development - Page 44

Geographer · #**861** Posted **Oct 2, 2020, 6:14 AM**

The American high tech industry has libertarian ethos. Many of the biggest players in Silicon Valley are outspoken on privacy, human rights issues, democracy, and censorship. Tech workers in America are overwhelmingly socially progressive. There is not evidence yet that Chinese tech leaders or rank and file workers have the same attitudes toward democracy, openness, human rights protection and promotion, and social progress. Silicon Valley leaders harshly criticize the American president. When is the last time you heard the Chinese tech moguls harshly criticize Xi Jinping?

The Chinese Communist Party is the global enemy of those values and they exert tremendous control over their companies. Their censorship of WeChat, for example, applies to messages send on its platform anywhere in the world, not just between users in China. So while social media and tech companies around the world deserve a lot of scrutiny including those based in America, Chinese companies are in a separate category of danger. They are beholden to and allied with a government hostile to American values. American tech companies are politically independent while Chinese tech companies are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party and dare not speak out against or oppose any of its leaders.

LoneStarMike · #**862** Posted **Oct 7, 2020, 5:25 AM**

Update on Charles Scwab relocating its' headquarters to Westlake.

Charles Schwab expects Westlake to become its official corporate HQ address on Jan. 1

Quote:

With its $22 billion deal for rival TD Ameritrade now complete, Charles Schwab says it expects to formally designate Westlake as the combined company’s new corporate headquarters on Jan. 1.

Schwab signaled the move a year ago when it announced the deal but didn’t put a timetable on the headquarters relocation from San Francisco.

papertowelroll · #**863** Posted **Oct 7, 2020, 6:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LoneStarMike

Update on Charles Scwab relocating its' headquarters to Westlake.

Charles Schwab expects Westlake to become its official corporate HQ address on Jan. 1

FYI that's Westlake, TX in DFW, not West Lake Hills near Austin.

LoneStarMike · #**864** Posted **Oct 7, 2020, 8:41 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by papertowelroll

FYI that's Westlake, TX in DFW, not West Lake Hills near Austin.

Aww crap. Well never mind, then.

drummer · #**865** Posted **Oct 7, 2020, 1:34 PM**

They have a huge campus in Westlake (DFW) already. It was wrapping up construction around the time the Covid stuff began, I believe. This is based on me driving by on Hwy 114/170 around that time, nothing else...so I could be wrong.

LiveattheOasis · #**866** Posted **Oct 7, 2020, 5:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by drummer

They have a huge campus in Westlake (DFW) already. It was wrapping up construction around the time the Covid stuff began, I believe. This is based on me driving by on Hwy 114/170 around that time, nothing else...so I could be wrong.

Been there, it’s the HQ. Huge win for DFW. Westlake is pretty phenomenal.

The ATX · #**867** Posted **Oct 8, 2020, 2:15 PM**

While we are discussing economic activity in DFW, the NASDAQ is in talks with Texas (and Abbot) about moving operations from New Jersey to DFW. Lower taxes is why they are looking to move.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business...texas/2456582/

urbancore · #**868** Posted **Oct 8, 2020, 2:45 PM**

from the ABJ article today about Tesla's battery plans;

Austin could set a record in 2020 for the amount of jobs brought to the city through corporate relocations, according to Opportunity Austin, the economic development initiative of the Austin Chamber of Commerce. Twenty-eight relocating companies have announced 9,325 new jobs so far this year, compared to 58 such companies announcing 4,658 new jobs in 2019. The best year on record, going back to 2004, was 2018, with 9,424 jobs announced.

urbancore · #**869** Posted **Oct 8, 2020, 2:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

While we are discussing economic activity in DFW, the NASDAQ is in talks with Texas (and Abbot) about moving operations from New Jersey to DFW. Lower taxes is why they are looking to move.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business...texas/2456582/

that is huge.

shoreditch · #**870** Posted **Oct 8, 2020, 3:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbancore

that is huge.

Symbolically yes. But operationally, NASDAQ Inc., is not an enormous firm (not small by anymeans, but we're talking orders of magnitude smaller than Amazon HQ2).

lonewolf · #**871** Posted **Oct 8, 2020, 3:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

While we are discussing economic activity in DFW, the NASDAQ is in talks with Texas (and Abbot) about moving operations from New Jersey to DFW. Lower taxes is why they are looking to move.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business...texas/2456582/

right after gov announced raising taxes the nyse sent out a notice announcing they would be "testing" their ability to run out of their chicago office for a week...makes sense nasdaq is sniffing around...dfw would be my first pick as well

N90 · #**872** Posted **Oct 8, 2020, 5:10 PM**

FWIW, NASDAQ’s HQ is in NYC and not in NJ.

What they’re talking about is moving some electronic functions and data centers that are in NJ now to TX.

The HQ, which is the only prize I ever wanna see from relocating firms, is staying in NYC. Though this one isn’t too bad if DFW can land all or most of NASDAQ’s trading floors.

lonewolf · #**873** Posted **Oct 19, 2020, 4:47 PM**

just an FYI comment that I didn't know where to put

I work in austin in CRE

I know for a fact my company has news in pipeline but we are waiting to release "good news" bc the general environment (local and national) is not really suitable

this spring we are planning on stringing together our "good news" releases in a relatively short timeframe for maximum PR

I imagine many are in this same boat. the slowdown is not quite as it seems. Don't be surprised if companies are sending out positive news left and right in 6 months

freerover · #**874** Posted **Oct 19, 2020, 5:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

just an FYI comment that I didn't know where to put

I work in austin in CRE

I know for a fact my company has news in pipeline but we are waiting to release "good news" bc the general environment (local and national) is not really suitable

this spring we are planning on stringing together our "good news" releases in a relatively short timeframe for maximum PR

I imagine many are in this same boat. the slowdown is not quite as it seems. Don't be surprised if companies are sending out positive news left and right in 6 months

Great. After a campaign by the Anti-Prop A folks that the economy is terrible, vote down mass transit. Great timing.

lonewolf · #**875** Posted **Oct 19, 2020, 5:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by freerover

Great. After a campaign by the Anti-Prop A folks that the economy is terrible, vote down mass transit. Great timing.

lmao, not my call!

freerover · #**876** Posted **Oct 19, 2020, 6:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

lmao, not my call!

I'm just angry.

ILUVSAT · #**877** Posted **Oct 19, 2020, 9:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

just an FYI comment that I didn't know where to put

I work in austin in CRE

I know for a fact my company has news in pipeline but we are waiting to release "good news" bc the general environment (local and national) is not really suitable

this spring we are planning on stringing together our "good news" releases in a relatively short timeframe for maximum PR

I imagine many are in this same boat. the slowdown is not quite as it seems. Don't be surprised if companies are sending out positive news left and right in 6 months

This could be good news. However, y'all are in CRE and not the PR business. Staying out in front of the narrative is key. Waiting only increases your chances of loosing control of the narrative - potentially by leaks.

Not releasing the "good news" because of the current "general environment?" Doesn't really make since unless this is a political thing. If so, things could get really bumpy depending on who wins in a few weeks.

I would potentially reconsider the described strategy.

lonewolf · #**878** Posted **Oct 20, 2020, 1:58 PM**

I am 100% not involved in this decision, to be clear. I am extremely skeptical this is for political reasons. If a local dev came out with plans/announcements for near future it would get washed away in less than 24hours in this news cycle (i guess that may be partly political) this is just how it was explained to me

I was just saying I do not think we are alone in plotting to announce stuff to maximum exposure, so i am low key expecting to see a lot of good news (probably after feb, total guess on my part)

We vs us · #**879** Posted **Oct 20, 2020, 5:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

I am 100% not involved in this decision, to be clear. I am extremely skeptical this is for political reasons. If a local dev came out with plans/announcements for near future it would get washed away in less than 24hours in this news cycle (i guess that may be partly political) this is just how it was explained to me

I was just saying I do not think we are alone in plotting to announce stuff to maximum exposure, so i am low key expecting to see a lot of good news (probably after feb, total guess on my part)

I've been thinking about this for awhile. It's seemed quiet on the announcement front around here, and my theory has been essentially that the Election and COVID are clogging the attention tubes of pretty much everyone at this point. It doesn't seem like a bad play to wait till much of this resolves itself by the springtime (cross your fingers).

A lot of the folks in hospitality and tourism anecdotally see spring as the next possibility for turnaround, too; and have essentially chucked the winter months out the window.

StoOgE · #**880** Posted **Oct 20, 2020, 7:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonewolf

right after gov announced raising taxes the nyse sent out a notice announcing they would be "testing" their ability to run out of their chicago office for a week...makes sense nasdaq is sniffing around...dfw would be my first pick as well

The amount of on-exchange trading that is going on is diminishing rapidly. ECNs are the clear future of where trading is going to happen and most of the exchanges are adapting to effectively become ECNs. Market making no longer takes place from any of the large houses and the exchanges basically exist so that hey can post large hedging/block trading activity legally.

The NYSE is still trying real hard with their blue-line trading rules that advantage traders on the floor (or renting office space in the NYSE) but its mostly small boutique liquidity providers down there.

Dallas makes sense geographically for a lot of these data centers to locate to, and margins in that business are getting thinner and thinner so shedding the overhead of NYC is a must, and they frankly don't need (and cant compete for) the top talent from the NYC worker pool anyway. At this point the NYSE basically maintains a floor primarily so that CEOs can ring the bell when they go public. The handful of times I was down on the floor was pretty underwhelming other than it being neat that I was on the floor of the NYSE.