Good timing for this ABJ article about the North Austin Growth Summit event:
https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/...-explosive-growth-shifting-business.html
Some select quotes from speakers:
Mike Heiligenstein, executive director, Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority:
While Heilgenstein now leads the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, he served on the Round Rock City Council for eight years in the 1980s, at a time when the city had about 8,000 people. Now it has more than 118,000: "It's crazy," he said.
Looking forward, Heilgenstein said he expects areas farther out from Austin like Liberty Hill to soak up more of the residential growth because of cheaper homes and new roads that connect to the urban core.
“What I really believe is that our roads are the biggest single factor that are going to allow people to buy homes they can afford," Heilgenstein said.
Talk of roads eventually turned to the oft-utilized MoPac Expressway. According to Heilgenstein, 80 percent of drivers use the relatively new tolled lanes on MoPac a few times a month, 15 percent use it a few times per week and about 6 percent use it every day.
“We’re over two million transactions a month there, and 30,000 a day," Heilgenstein said. “When the price goes up, there’s significant congestion ahead. A lot of people are saying that it’s worth $10.”
Heilgenstein offered advice for developers looking at projects in North Austin: reach out to authorities like CTRMA for guidance before it's too late. For instance, he relayed a recent story about someone asking him about potentially building an exit lane from MoPac directly to The Domain. But Heilgenstein said that ship had already sailed, but his team tried to accommodate.
“Where would you land a direct lane from the express lane on The Domain? That’s too late," he said of the area becoming known as Austin's second downtown. “We can do things early in the process that we cannot do after you’ve made the decision to build a 19-story building."
He had some strong words about I-35.
“It’s embarrassing that we’ve let I-35 deteriorate to the point where it is today,” Heilgenstein said to cheers.
Vaike O’Grady, Austin regional director, Metrostudy
Asked to come up with a single word to describe the growth in North Austin, O'Grady landed on "feverish."
She noted that there is "a lot of craziness in the market right now," while adding that business has been booming for area builders.
“Many builders I speak to are having the best quarter they’ve had in a while," said O'Grady, whose company closely tracks the homebuilding market.
O'Grady said suburbs such as Pflugerville, Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock and Hutto are experiencing the most dramatic growth, according to Metrostudy data.
“Demand is really, really strong, especially as you look north," she said.
She also pointed to potential opportunities in Liberty Hill.
“Liberty Hill has the most vacant lot inventory, and it’s among the top 5 in home starts," O'Grady said. "All it needs is a grocery store and then it will get going.”
Marc Vanderslice, senior vice president, CBRE
Vanderslice said his colleagues in San Francisco have been blown away by Austin's rapid growth. So why are so many businesses setting up shop here, particularly in North Austin?
Part of the reason is because so many employees of the Fortune 500 companies setting up shop in the area want to live on the north side. A plethora of dining and entertainment options at The Domain have made it a natural landing spot for big business.
"With them coming up to this area, they wanted to replicate the same amenities their employees had been used to [downtown], so they focused on The Domain area," he said.
Vanderslice also described a recent deal where a client — a big tech company deciding between Austin, Dallas, Denver and Charlotte for a new office — picking the Texas capital without ever visiting, once they learned about the decision by Apple Inc. to build a $1 billion campus at Robinson Ranch.
“Within a week of Apple’s announcement, instead of getting a call to say, ‘We’re coming in to look at Austin,' the call was, ‘We’ve decided on Austin,'" Vanderslice said. “This one was very shocking to me."
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