Starbucks Corp. revealed the first wave of its 600 store closings on Monday, with five so far in Texas.
On July 1, the Seattle coffee giant (Nasdaq: SBUX) said it would close 600 "underperforming" stores in the United States. Approximately 70 percent of them opened since the beginning of fiscal 2006, Starbucks says.
Among the first 50 stores to be closed are five in Texas, one each in Brownsville, Laredo, Dallas, Rosenburg and Waco.
The largest among to be closed in one city will be in Las Vegas.
While no Austin stores are in the first batch of specific closures, a map on The Seattle Times Web site indicates that two stores in Austin will be among the 600. Citing various sources, the Seattle Times map says the store at 1007 South Congress Ave. and another at 13450 Research Blvd. in North Austin will be shuttered.
A spokesperson for Starbucks could not immediately be reached for comment on prospective Austin closures.
www.starbucks.com
United Title of Texas Inc. has ceased operations.
The Austin-based company with 27 offices throughout the state confirmed the shutdown Wednesday. United Title had three offices and 22 employees in the Austin area.
United Title CEO Jim Hilbun says he received word yesterday from United's parent company, Mercury Cos. of Denver, that it was shutting down the Texas operation.
Hilbun says details have been sketchy, but as he understands it the shutdown is due to a discontinuation of a line of credit. He says Mercury had a line of credit with a six-bank credit facility, which recently decided to withhold those funds. Without that credit, Mercury has no operating capital and has been forced to shutter operations in five states.
Hilbun says he's tried to contact Mercury regarding any severance for his employees but has not heard from the company.
It's unclear at this point how clients currently in the closing process with United will be affected.
A spokesperson for Mercury could not immediately be reached for comment on this story.
A local real estate investor is selling nearly $60 million in assets, including the five-acre Volente Beach Waterpark and a 58-acre, waterfront tract with development entitlements on Lake Travis.
Steven Adams, owner of investment firm Treehouse Investments LLC, has contracted with McClung Properties Inc. to sell a series of Central Texas properties stretching from Volente to Elgin.
Several of the assets will be sold at an auction Aug. 14 at the Hilton Austin. The rest, including Volente Beach and the adjacent 164-slip Volente Marina, are slated for outright sale. The 12 properties have a total appraised value of nearly $60 million, according to marketing materials.
The properties include:
Neill McClung, principal of McClung Properties, declined to say why his client is selling the properties. The auction notice says "local investor must sell everything."
McClung says auctions are becoming an increasingly popular way to sell commercial real estate nationwide. He cites a number of reasons for the trend, including a fixed sale date and more qualified buyers.
Given the prime nature of some of the properties, including the commercial tracts in fast-growing Elgin, McClung says he's expecting significant national interest in the assets.
"Austin is attractive to everybody right now, investors included," he says. "Money is very restricted nationally, but the forecasted growth here puts us on everyone's list."
The business climate in Texas is the best in the nation, according to a study by marketing company Development Counsellors International.
In the poll of 281 corporate executives across the country, 40.8 percent of participants say Texas had the most favorable business climate -- an accolade the Lone Star State has held since 1999.
Executives cited a strong labor market, low operating costs and a pro-business climate as factors in their decision.
North Carolina ranked second, while Georgia was third, followed by Tennessee and Florida, which tied for fourth place.
For the third consecutive year, California was viewed as the state with the least favorable business climate. New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts rounded out the bottom five.
"With the battle for business more intense than ever, states and their economic development organizations need to pay close attention to the results of this survey," DCI President Andrew Levine says in a statement. "Whether accurate or misguided, perceptions about a location's business climate often play a crucial role in site selection decisions and where companies invest money and create jobs."
DCI says its survey was sent to a random selection of 3,591 U.S. companies with annual revenue of at least $25 million. The study is conducted every three years.
www.theleaderinmarketingplaces.com
Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens told lawmakers that a switch to American-produced energy resources within the next 10 years is necessary to end the nation's crippling $700 billion dependence on foreign oil.
Pickens, who revealed his alternative energy plan earlier this month through a series of television ads and the Internet, told the U.S. Senate Homeland and Security and Government Affairs Committee on Tuesday that the United States should be able to produce 22 percent of its electrical energy needs using wind-powered electricity, based on Department of Energy estimates.
Pickens points to the great plains, which includes parts of West Texas, as a prime location for producing wind energy resources.
Pickens told lawmakers the creation of wind-generated electricity will free up a percentage of the nation's natural gas resources that are currently fueling U.S. power plants.
If wind energy resources take a more active role in powering plants, Pickens says natural gas resources can then be redirected to the nation's transportation system, reducing the nation's foreign dependence on oil by 38 percent.
"I believe this plan provides a significant bridge to the future that gives us time to develop the next generation of alternative fuels, including electric vehicles," Pickens says. "It results in revitalizing much of rural America with more than $1 trillion in private investment within 10 years instead of enriching other nations at our expense. It can all be accomplished with private investment but needs government support by clearing the way for action, which means help on providing the transmission rights of way, the appropriate renewals of the renewable energy tax credits, among other things."
Pickens' plan calls for lawmakers to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil by 30 percent in 10 years. It also stipulates that the country needs to rely 100 percent on energy resources produced in the United States.
www.pickensplan.com
Local developer Dick Rathgeber recently sold 1031 acres of the planned Headwaters at Barton Creek development to Austin Based Masonwood Communities.
Masonwood intends to develop the subdivision into over 1000 homes priced starting at $250,000. The plan for the subdivision has been approved by the City of Dripping Springs.
Masonwood does not expect to break ground on the project for two to three years. Masonwood CEO Jim Meredith has stated that market conditions will determine how quickly they move forward. He also said that the project calls for 700 acres of open space when finished.
Rathgeber has retained control of 300 acres that he intends to donate to the Austin Community Foundation for parkland.
The project will be located on the north side of Highway 290 east of Dripping Springs and west of Trautwein Road.
Drivers in Texas spend nearly 6 percent of their income on gasoline, twice as much as what drivers in some states spend, according to a report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The report highlights two areas: state-by-state vulnerability to high oil prices and implementation by states of alternatives and solutions.
Texas is the 16th most vulnerable state when it comes to gas prices. The average Texas motorist spent $2,174 on gasoline in 2007, or about 5.85 percent of income, the report shows.
Motorists in Mississippi, which ranks at the top of the list, spend an average of more than 8 percent of their income on gasoline, while drivers in Connecticut, the least vulnerable state, spend 3.17 percent of income on fuel.
The states in which drivers are most at risk to high gas price increases are Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Iowa.
States doing the most to promote energy-saving policies to reduce oil dependency and protect residents from oil price spikes include California, New York, Connecticut, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Colorado and Maryland.
Despite a growing focus on alternative energy, Texas, where the petroleum industry remains a large part of the economy, has a long way to go to wean itself from oil dependency. The report ranks the Lone Star State 36th on the solutions list.
Two area Starbucks stores are among the 600 the company locations nationwide that the company plans to close.
Starbucks Corp. on Friday released the full list of company-operated stores it will close between now and the first half of next year.
The Austin locations at 1007 South Congress Ave. and 5000 W. Slaughter Lane at the intersection of MoPac Expressway are among the 56 Texas stores on the list.
Another Austin store at 13450 Research Blvd., rumored to be among those slated for closure, is not on the list and apparently has been spared.
Seattle-based Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) says it has notified all employees at the affected stores.
In the neighborhoods surrounding the University of Texas and a handful of others across Central Austin, people can walk with relative ease between shops, public spaces and residences. But overall, Austin is lagging many other cities across the country when it comes to being pedestrian-friendly, according to a new report.
WalkScore.com, a project of Seattle software company Front Seat, has ranked the 40 largest U.S. cities in term of their "walkability." Austin ranks 29th on that list, behind comparable cities like Tucson, Ariz. (25th); Louisville, Ky. (15th); Sacramento, Calif. (20th); and Albuquerque, N.M. (21st).
Walk Score named downtown, the University of Texas and the West Campus areas as the most pedestrian-friendly in Austin.
To create the list, Walk Score examined 2,508 neighborhoods across the 40 largest U.S. cities. The group ranked each neighborhood's "walkability" and added up the scores for each city to establish the ranking.
Sheer size and abundance of neighborhoods helped other Texas cities like Dallas and Houston place higher on the list. Dallas, with walker-friendly neighborhoods like the Main Street District and West End Historic District, ranked 24th. Houston, with Montrose and River Oaks, among others, ranked 26th.
To see how Walk Score ranked various Austin neighborhoods, go to walkscore.com/rankings/Austin
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics added more bad news this week for contractors and developers trying to get buildings out of the ground.
Construction material costs increased 10.4 percent during the past year, the agency reported on Tuesday. The bureau's producer price index measures materials used in construction, including diesel fuel. Meanwhile, highway construction materials increased 18.9 percent during the past 12 months.
Ken Simonson, economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, says in a statement "surging prices for diesel fuel, asphalt, steel and other materials are clobbering construction budgets."
He says asphalt prices during the first two weeks in July have increased by 40 percent. Rebar has increased $200 per ton.
And Simonson says the situation could get worse.
"Unless Congress passes additional funding in the next few weeks to keep highway construction funds flowing, many states will stop awarding contracts," he says. "Other public agencies, as well as private owners, must adjust their budgets promptly to reflect the new price realities for construction."
Republican White House contender Sen. John McCain will be the featured speaker at the Lance Armstrong Foundation's Livestrong Summit at Ohio State University this month.
The Austin-based cancer foundation says the Arizona senator will talk about his plans to further the fight against cancer. The summit will take place July 24-27 on the OSU campus in Columbus, Ohio. McCain will open the event on July 24.
"Cancer will soon be the number one cause of death in this country, and Americans want to know how our leaders plan to combat it," says Lance Armstrong, founder and chairman of the foundation.
This is the second year the Lance Armstrong Foundation is hosting a summit on cancer, which claims more than 500,000 American lives
Lance Armstrong has been a resident of Dripping Springs for a number of years.
American commuters are making some sacrifices in their social lives to counter rising prices at the gas pumps, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey published July 9.
Of the 89 percent of workers who said they drive to work, 47 percent said they had to give up something in order to afford the gas needed for their commute. What have workers given up?
Given the cost of gas today, 60 percent of workers said they would be willing to drive up to 20 miles to the office. Twenty-nine percent would only drive up to 10 miles, while 10 percent would only drive up to five miles.
The survey of more than 8,700 workers across the United States was completed in June.
Texas is king when it comes to doing business.
That's according to CNBC's just-released ranking of America's Top States for Doing Business-2008.
The Lone Star State unseated last year's No. 1, Virginia, which fell to No. 2. Rounding out the top five are Utah, Idaho and Colorado, in that order. Texas ranked 2nd on last year's list.
To create the list, CNBC scored all 50 states in an number of categories, from education to economy and transportation to cost of living.
According to CNBC, Texas' "large population, abundance of natural resources, and diverse population and geography have created a dynamic economy."
The financial and business news channel says Texas' booming energy industry in these times of record oil prices is the main reason the state rose to the top this year.
To see the complete list go to: www.cnbc.com/id/25447829
Austin is among the hottest cities for entry-level job openings, according to data compiled by CollegeGrad.com.
The Pennsylvania-based Internet job board ranks Austin No. 17 on its list of cities with the most job openings for recent graduates. The list, which is generated based on the number of entry-level jobs posted at CollegeGrad.com, is available at www.CollegeGrad.com/topcities.
For the third year in a row, New York tops the list of cities with the most entry-level job openings. Houston ranked second, followed by Los Angeles.
The Texas State Climatologist warned Thursday that the state continues to operate under severe drought conditions and there may not be much hope of the situation improving anytime soon.
Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, who's also a professor of meterology at Texas A&M University, says at least 50 percent of Texas is suffering from drought conditions. In fact, significant regions of the state are faced with extreme or exceptional drought.
"The hardest-hit areas are in western, central, and southern Texas," says Nielsen-Gammon. "Some areas have received less than a quarter of their normal rainfall for the past six months."
Elsewhere in Central and South Texas, farmers have already been affected by the prolonged drought, which has harmed the wheat harvest and prevented some spring planting, Nielsen-Gammon says.
Also, ranchers face the risk of having depleted hay supplies for their livestock if summer rainfall levels don't return back to normal, he adds.
Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday it will close 600 underperforming stores nationwide by the middle of fiscal year 2009.
The Seattle-based coffee giant said it will open less than 200 new stores in the U.S. in its 2009 fiscal year. Starbucks operates about 7,000 stores itself and licenses 4,100 more in the U.S.
Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) said the stores set for closure are spread across all major U.S. markets, but it did not elaborate on exact locations. About 70 percent of the to-be-closed stores opened since the beginning of fiscal 2006. About 12,000 jobs would be eliminated, according to Associated Press reports.
"It is necessary to make decisions that will strengthen the U.S. store portfolio and enable us to enter into fiscal 2009 focused on enhancing operating efficiency, improving customer satisfaction and ensuring long-term value for our partners, customers and shareholders," Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz says.
The closures will cost the company up to $348 million in pre-tax charges. Severance costs are expected to be about $8 million.