The City of Dripping Springs has purchased 64 acres just north of town and across from the Primary School. The land will be used as a city park to be named Harrison Park.
The city plans to have day camps, sports facilities, and recreational areas.
The land was purchased with partial funding from the Hays County Parks fund.
Gasoline prices made double-digit jumps across Texas this week, continuing to set records across the state.
The average price for regular self-serve gasoline rose 13 cents from last week to $3.47 a gallon, about 70 cents above last year's average, according to AAA Texas.
"All Texas regions surveyed this week set new record highs," said AAA Texas spokeswoman Rose Rougeau.
Austin drivers were paying $3.44 a gallon, up 13 cents, while Houston averaged $3.46 a gallon, up 12.5 cents. Texarkana had the biggest leap, of 20.5 cents, to $3.49 a gallon.
Fort Worth tops the list, setting a new record at $3.49 a gallon, up 13 cents from last week. Dallas prices hit an average $3.48 a gallon, also up 13 cents.
The lowest average in the state was San Antonio at $3.41 a gallon, up 14 cents from a week ago.
The national average for gas rose 14 cents to $3.56 a gallon.
Company officials aren't talking, but rumors are rampant that Dell Inc. plans to acquire Fort Worth-based RadioShack, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
On Monday and Tuesday, an unusually high number of RadioShack (NYSE: RSH) stock options were traded, which could be the result of "unsubstantiated rumors" that the Austin computer giant is planning to purchase the retail chain, the Star-Telegram reported Wednesday.
The idea isn't as far-fetched as some analysts might think. In a May 2007 article, BusinessWeek suggested the acquisition of RadioShack's 4,000-plus stores would give Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) "a meaningful retail footprint" in which to sell its PCs.
BROWNWOOD -- State Comptroller Susan Combs said Texas is in good shape economically and ahead of most states nationwide, during a speech at the Brownwood Womens Club luncheon Tuesday.
"We do not predict a recession, and we have not had a housing or subprime problem," Combs said. "Texas is just doing better because we are smarter."
Combs pointed to the 213,000 jobs created statewide from March of 2007 to March of this year.
"We have exceeded the entire country in job creation," Combs said.
Combs pointed to growth in cities like Abilene, Brownwood and San Angelo.
"What is happening here is exciting," she said.
Combs said her office is making a large amount of information available on her Web site so that the public can make sure the state is accountable for every expenditure. Currently available items include a virtual check register updated every 48 hours and an area for unclaimed property.
"We have $1.5 billion in our bank in unclaimed property," Combs said. "And it used to take 60 to 90 days for the state to mail you a check if you are on the list -- now the turnaround time is 24 hours."
Combs said her office is working to do all its business electronically.
"We want to be simpler, smarter and faster," she said.
The comptroller's office is in the process of launching a new tool for economic development called Texas EDGE (Economic Data for Growth and Expansion), which will allow communities to access demographics, tax base information and all other facts related economic development for every county statewide.
During a later round-table discussion with the board of the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce, Combs said her office was excited about the state's system that will allow cities and counties to prepare proposals to attract business, industry and jobs.
"We want to help the communities prepare the proper pitch," she said. "You have to be competitively minded."
For more online information provided by the comptroller's office go to http://www.window.state.tx.us/.
The City of Dripping Springs is expecting that the new sewer plant will go online on May 15th, 2008 as scheduled. The first phase of sewer has been years in the planning and will open the door for more development in Dripping Springs including McDonalds, HEB and more.
The City also expects to annex the land where the sewer plant is located sometime soon.
The number of jobs in the Austin area held steady in March, while statewide employment gains were slighter than the previous month.
Total Austin-area jobs rose by 6,400 in March, or a 0.8 percent increase, compared with February, according to the most recent Texas Workforce Commission report. The area now has a total of 773,300 jobs. Leisure and hospitality saw one of the biggest jumps, at 1,500 new jobs, mostly due to spring break hiring, the report says. Government added 1,600 jobs, whereas manufacturing and information sectors saw the smallest gains at 100 new jobs added in each field. Education and health services also posted smaller gains, with 200 new jobs added.
For the last year, the area gained 21,800 jobs, or a 2.9 percent increase in total employment. Over the year, professional and business services gained 5,200 jobs, or 5 percent growth. Leisure and hospitality grew by 4.8 percent or 3,700 jobs; trade, transportation and utilities by 3 percent or 4,000 jobs; government by 2.5 percent of 4,000 jobs; and manufacturing dropped 1.2 percent, or a loss of 700 jobs.
The area unemployement rate is up just slightly at 3.6 percent, compared with 3.5 percent in March 2007.
Statewide, the number of jobs grew by 213,700 over the last year to 10.5 million, slightly less than February's total growth of 16,000 new jobs. For the month of March, Texas added 13,500 new jobs. The state's unemployment rate is 4.2 percent, the same rate as March 2007.
Texas is bucking the national trend of rising property foreclosure rates, according to a California-based research company.
A total of 10,700 Texas properties entered the foreclosure process during March, down more than 16 percent from the volume of filings recorded in March 2007, a recent report by Calif.-based RealtyTrac shows. The March foreclosure figure also represents a decrease of almost 13 percent from filings reported this past February.
Nationwide, a total of 234,685 properties entered the foreclosure process during the month of March -- marking a 57 percent increase from the number of filings in March 2007 and a 5 percent bump from February 2008's mark, RealtyTrac reports.
James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTRAC, points out that on a year-over-year basis as of the end of March, default notices and bank repossessions nationwide were up nearly 57 percent and 129 percent, respectively -- an indication "that more defaulting homeowners are simply walking away and deeding their properties back to the foreclosing lender," Saccacio says.
Auction notices, by comparison, jumped by 32 percent during the period.
"This deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure process allows the lender to take possession of a property without putting it up for public foreclosure auction," Saccacio adds.
Once again, California and Florida earned the top spots in RealtyTrac's latest foreclosure tracking report. Both states, along with Ohio, reported the highest foreclosure totals for the month of March.
California was number one with a total of 64,711 foreclosures in process -- marking a jump of 20.66 percent compared with March 2007, and a year-over-year spike of nearly 106 percent.
Florida reported the second-highest total -- 30,254 filings. That figure reflects an increase of nearly 112 percent from figures posted in March 2007. However, foreclosure filings in Florida dropped by nearly 7 percent between February and March 2008.
The No. 3 spot goes to Ohio, which reported 11,273 foreclosures in process in March -- an increase of more than 37 percent from the number of filings posted in March 2007. Foreclosure totals in the Buckeye State rose nearly 9 percent between February and March of this year.
A federal bankruptcy judge denied the reorganization plan proposed by embattled Save Our Springs Alliance.
The nonprofit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2007. Hearings were conducted in November over SOS' proposed reorganization plan. In a 68-page court order on April 11, Judge Craig Gargotta says SOS failed to demonstrate it could raise donations for a proposed creditor settlement fund.
Although SOS claimed it could pay out larger sums to creditors than they would receive if SOS' assets were liquidated, Judge Gargotta ruled that SOS' plan is not feasible.
In a statement SOS says that despite the significant setback, it is confident that a plan will be confirmed in the coming months. In the meantime, the organization will conduct its regular course of business.
"We worked hard to come up with a plan that is fair to our creditors and that the court could approve, and we are disappointed that the court did not see it that way," says Weldon Ponder, outside counsel for the SOS Alliance, who handled the case.
"We will evaluate our options, including a motion for reconsideration on the feasibility issue and the potential for proposing a new plan," says Ponder. "For now, SOS Alliance may, with the support of its donors, continue its conservation work in the community."
SOS' descent into bankruptcy began after the organization received a judgment of almost $300,000 in attorney fees stemming from its lawsuit against developer Bill Gunn and his Lazy Nine Municipal Utility District.
SOS Executive Director Bill Bunch says the organization will file a challenge to the Lazy Nine judgment soon, on the grounds that the ruling judge in the lawsuit was a visiting judge without authority to hear the case.
Gunn plans to build thousands of homes in western Travis County, near Bee Creek and Little Barton Creek. According to SOS, construction activity has already polluted the limestone in Bee Creek.
The SOS Ordinance, approved by Austin voters in August 1992 by a 2-1 margin, limits impervious cover in the Barton Springs watershed and fights development that blocks water from flowing into the Edwards Aquifer.
McDonalds has confirmed with the City of Dripping Springs that they will indeed be coming to town sometime this year. They should be submitting plans to the city in June. They plan to break ground in the fall.
The location will be on the padsites directly across 290 from the Home Depot in downtown Dripping Springs.
The city has had long discussions with McDonalds regarding architecture and design. The city has strived to give all of the local buildings a hill country feel to them and McDonalds has a format that they like to use that makes it hard to accommodate those changes. In the end the city won out and McDonalds in Dripping Springs will have a hill country tone to it.
Gasoline prices in the Austin area are at a record high heading into this weekend.
The average price on a gallon of self-serve regular gas in Austin is $3.26, up 7.7 cents from last week and 62 cents from a year ago, according to a AAA survey. With crude oil continuing to sell above $100 a barrel, prices at the pump are not expected to decline any time soon.
The U.S. Energy Department predicted earlier this week that national gas prices will peak near $3.60 a gallon in June. The national average is currently $3.36 a gallon.
The current statewide average price of $3.28 a gallon is also a record, up 7 cents a gallon over the last week.
Jon Thompson, the development coordinator for the City of Dripping Springs, confirmed yesterday that Walgreen's will be coming soon. The location will be the southwest corner of RR12 and Hwy 290 where currently Harrell's Funeral Home is located. The city has agreed to let Walgreen's remove many of the 100+ year old oak trees on the property so the project can move forward.
The project is approved and you should expect to see ground breaking within 30 days. The store may be open as soon as October of this year.
The chapel building that houses the funeral home will be torn down as part of the construction. Previously the chapel housed the Dripping Springs United Methodist Church and the building is over 100 years old.
Regular grade gasoline retail prices are projected to average $3.36 per gallon across the nation in 2008 while the monthly average gasoline price is projected to peak at just over $3.60 per gallon in June, according to data released Tuesday by the federal Energy Information Administration.
Tuesday's national average for regular grade gasoline was $3.33 per gallon, just slightly down from Monday's record average price of $3.39 per gallon, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report that is based on data from Oil Price Information Service, a petroleum pricing information provider. A gallon of regular grade gasoline cost $2.78 on April 8, 2007.
The average gallon of gas in St. Louis currently costs $3.284, compared to an average price of $2.675 on April 8 of last year. In Missouri on Tuesday, the average gallon of regular grade gas cost $3.179 on Tuesday, the fourth-lowest average gas price in the nation.
Nationwide, regular grade gasoline retail prices, which averaged $2.93 per gallon last summer, are projected to average $3.54 per gallon during the current driving season, according to the EIA. Diesel fuel prices, which averaged $2.85 per gallon last summer, are projected to average $3.73 this summer.
During the summer season, defined as the period from April 1 to September 30, the EIA projects motor gasoline consumption will decline by 0.4 percent as a result of the current economic slowdown and high retail prices.
The EIA said these retail price projections reflect higher prices for the refiner's average acquisition cost of crude oil, projected to average almost $97 per barrel, up from about $67 per barrel last summer.
The EIA also warns that it is possible that prices at some point will cross the $4 per gallon threshold. Don Redman, a spokesman for AAA Missouri, said those prices will be mainly on the West Coast and are not projected for Missouri.
Redman cautions that these projections are made in a very volatile market and that they may easily change.
"We tell all our customers to be prepared to pay historic prices the rest of the year," Redman said.
Mike Right, a spokesman for AAA, told the Business Journal in March that Missouri has lower gasoline taxes -- 17 cents per gallon -- than most other states so Missourians tend to pay less at the pump than others. Missouri also doesn't add on other additional taxes, such as sales tax, to its gasoline.
Additionally, Right said St. Louis has an excellent distribution system available to the city thus making transportation of fuel relatively inexpensive compared to other markets.
The Web site www.stlouisgasprices.com, which tracks gas prices in the St. Louis area, reports the lowest gas price in the area on Tuesday morning was $3.19 at several stations. St. Louis Gas Prices is one of 178 local Web sites run by www.gasbuddy.com. The Web sites gather prices by a network of volunteer gas price spotters in each area.
Southwest Austin's Barton Creek Square is unveiling three new retailers for shoppers wanting sporting goods, jewelry or European menswear.
Athletic clothing and equipment retailer Champs Sports opened its Barton Creek Square location March 27. Jeweler Swarovski plans to open its first Austin store at the mall by the end of May. Men's clothing seller Bachrach also plans to open its Barton Creek Square location by the end of May.
Meanwhile, haircutter Toni & Guy plans to relocate its Barton Creek Square store to the mall's Nordstrom wing.
Starbucks Corp. is introducing a new coffee on Tuesday and will give away cups of its new Pike Place Roast brew beginning at 9 a.m.
The new coffee is named after the location of Starbucks' first store, which opened in Seattle's Pike Place Market in 1971.
According to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, the new brew was created after the Seattle coffee giant (NASDAQ: SBUX) received input from 1,000 customers. He added that Pike Place Roast will be the chain's first coffee bearing a mark that the coffee is purchased "ethically" from sources.
Starbucks has nearly 16,000 stores, including several in Austin.
Corporate buyouts are meeting the corner store.
In the midst of souring economic prospects and a poor buyout market for the city's largest companies, the sale of small businesses is booming, according to new industry data from the nation's largest online business broker, BizBuySell LLC.
Anecdotally, business brokers said sellers' interest is reaching its highest levels in years.
While that interest doesn't surpass other weaker metro economies nationwide, the figures show the beginnings of an economic shift for the city's smallest entrepreneurs.
Atlanta first-quarter listings of businesses for sale on BizBuySell's Web site have tripled within the last year from 371 to 969, while sales of businesses have increased 96 percent, from 29 to 57.
That growth is outstripped by BizBuySell's national data over the same period.
Across the U.S., BizBuySell reported a 66 percent increase in closed deals, from 1,081 in the first quarter of 2007 to 1,796 during the same period in 2008. National listings on the site quadrupled.
Unlike major corporate transactions with recognizable brand names, small-business sales typically fly under the radar, even though deals involve businesses consumers use every day.
Small businesses are typically bought by individuals, rather than private equity firms or strategic competitors, brokers said.
BizBuySell's first-quarter local deals include sales of Atlanta gas stations, dry cleaners, bars, restaurants, landscapers and small manufacturers.
"There's been a surge in sellers," said Mike Handelsman, general manager of BizBuySell.
The transactions don't garner the enormous price tags of buyouts by corporate giants. BizBuySell's average Atlanta sale in the first quarter of 2008 was only $145,000.
HPI Real Estate Services & Investments has brought Gary Ainsworth on board to oversee the company's management division.
As vice president of HPI Real Estate Management, Ainsworth will lead a division with 45 employees and more than 10 million square feet of properties in its management portfolio. The Austin-based company manages mostly industrial and office properties.
"We are excited to have Gary join our team," says Dick Anderson, co-founding partner of HPI. "He has the experience to help us continue to improve and grow the management division, and we are ready to do that" says Dick Anderson, co-founding partner of HPI.
Ainsworth was most recently an asset manager with Argus Realty Investments in Houston. Prior to that he held positions with Transwestern Commercial Services, Grubb & Ellis Management Services and The RREEF Funds.
AT&T Inc. is adding to its U-verse service in the Austin area with U-verse Voice.
U-verse Voice is part of the San Antonio company's [NYSE: T] Internet Protocol-based U-verse package, which became available in the Austin area in late 2007. That service offers more than 320 channels, including HD programming. U-verse also has a Digital Video Recorder feature, a Video on Demand library, an ability to search for programs using the title or actor's name and parental controls.
The new voice service is delivered over AT&T's network and combines with AT&T's U-verse television, broadband and wireless service. Its features also include an online address book, an online mailbox and call history. All U-verse Voice customers will have 911 service, the company says.
With the launch of the U-verse digital cable service in 2006, where it debuted in certain San Antonio neighborhoods, AT&T went head-to-head with Time Warner Cable, ranked the second largest telecom service provider in 2006 according to the Austin Business Journal's Book of Lists. San Marcos-based provider Grande Communications also provides digital cable services.
AT&T is a global communications and entertainment company that offers business communication services, wireless, high-speed Internet, voice services, directory publishing and digital television.
Fannie Mae is setting new rules about what mortgages it will buy, including a credit score threshold for the first time.
The District-based mortgage giant has told lenders it will no longer buy most loans made to borrowers with credit scores below 580, nor will it buy loans that have been more than 60 days past due within the last year.
Without evidence that extenuating circumstances led to a foreclosure, it will also no longer buy mortgages made to borrowers who have lost a home to foreclosure within the last five years. Fannie Mae currently considers mortgages after four years have passed.
The new rules go into effect June 1.
"The dramatic shifts in market dynamics over the past several months have prompted us to continually review the full spectrum of our risk appetite, eligibility requirements, automated underwriting risk assessment, and pricing," Fannie Mae said in the revised guidelines.
Conforming loan limits for Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE), set by their government regulator, will remain at $417,000 in 2009, despite falling housing prices. That ceiling has also been temporarily raised to $729,000 in high-cost cities until the end of 2008.
"Given the current state of the mortgage and housing markets, it is critical for our company to conservatively manage our business and risks through prudent pricing and underwriting, while providing sustainable liquidity to our lender customers and stability to the markets as part of our core mission," Fannie Mae said in a statement.
The Austin Community College District and Austin Independent School District are dedicating the new Crockett-ACC Automotive Center at Crockett High School.
ACC and AISD partnered on the $2.4 million renovation project "to address a regional shortage of skilled workers in high-demand areas such as automotive service and repair," according to ACC.
ACC and AISD officials, community leaders and students will attend a dedication ceremony April 1.
Through a joint program, students can earn college credits that count toward technical degrees and certificates.
"The addition of the Crockett center will better help us meet the employment needs of the local auto repair shops in the area," says Gary Hampton, head of the ACC division that oversees the college's two automotive training programs.
The automotive center at Crockett, which opened January 2008, meets certification standards of the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation.
Rents are still rising, but Austin's office market has seen healthier times.
The overall vacancy rate across all submarkets rose to 16 percent at the end of the first quarter, up from 14.4 percent at the end of 2007, according to statistics from Oxford Commercial. The average rental rate stands at $26.43, a 45 cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2007. But for the first time in a number of years, Austin saw negative absorption of 91,000 square feet for the quarter as the market continues to navigate the dichotomy between newly delivered buildings and lackluster leasing activity.
With nearly 1 million square feet of space added to the city's office inventory in recent months, developers are wary given the limited number of new tenant deals being inked. Many say sizable deals are circling the market, but just how many of those will translate into real absorption of new product in the near term remains unclear.
With vacancy and rental rates increasing and absorption in the negative category, Oxford Senior Vice President Rick Whiteley says: "The reality is that you're going to have to see some combination of the three factors change."
Though rents are still rising, Whiteley says there's been a definite deceleration of the increase compared with previous quarters when prices were advancing exponentially. Developers are recognizing that they cannot continue to push rents in a market with lackluster absorption activity, he says.
Vacancy in the southwest submarket, traditionally one of the strongest, rose to 21 percent, up from 17 percent in the previous quarter, as new buildings were completed but remained unfilled.
Whiteley points out that in the last six months, there has been a 42 percent increase in Class A vacancy marketwide. In the southwest submarket alone where a great deal of premium space has been added, there has been an 82 percent increase in Class A vacancy.
In Northeast Austin, where there is just 2 million square feet of inventory, vacancy shot up 10 percentage points to 28 percent with major tenant losses. New inventory in Far Northwest Austin raised the vacancy rate there a few percentage points to 13 percent.
Vacancy declined just slightly in the Central Business District to 16 percent as average rents rose to $30, up 40 cents from the prior quarter.
"It's economics 101 of supply and demand," says Vic Russo, who recently joined Oxford as a senior vice president on the landlord representative side. "It really gets back to job creation and we are seeing some activity, particularly in the tech sector. But it's not a rapid increase and existing landlords are pushing things like stability of ownership and services to their tenants. The rule of thumb right now is not to lose your existing tenants."
Meanwhile, the industrial market is fairly healthy. Overall vacancy in that sector stands at 11.8 percent. The market with the biggest vacancy rate, 20 percent, is Southeast Austin, where about 2 million square feet of new inventory has come online in the last six months. The north central submarket, with about 9.3 million square feet of inventory, has a vacancy rate of 12.9 percent.
Communication traveled slowly in those days and some people were only informed of the change several years later. Still others, who were more rebellious refused to acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1. These people were labeled "fools" by the general populace, were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them. The butts of these pranks became known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish" because a young naive fish is easily caught. In addition, one common practice was to hook a paper fish on the back of someone as a joke.
This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way.
In Scotland, for instance, April Fool's Day is devoted to spoofs involving the buttocks and as such is called Taily Day. The butts of these jokes are known as April 'Gowk', another name for cuckoo bird. The origins of the "Kick Me" sign can be traced back to the Scottish observance.
In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called 'gobs' or 'gobby' and the victim of a joke is called a 'noodle.' It was considered back luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon.
In Rome, the holiday is known as Festival of Hilaria, celebrating the resurrection of the god Attis, is on March 25 and is also referred to as "Roman Laughing Day."
In Portugal, April Fool's Day falls on the Sunday and Monday before lent. In this celebration, many people throw flour at their friends.
The Huli Festival is celebrated on March 31 in India. People play jokes on one another and smear colors on one another celebrating the arrival of Spring.
So, no matter where you happen to be in the world on April 1, don't be surprised if April fools fall playfully upon you.