BG Reads 3.11.2025

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Bingham Group Reads

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March 11, 2025

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🟪 New program aims to attract international firms to Austin (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 $1B development EastVillage brings work, life, play to northeast corridor (Community Impact)

🟪 Gov. Abbott could delay setting special election in Houston to help D.C. Republicans (Houston Chronicle)

🟪 Sen. Mark Kelly fires back at Musk over ‘traitor’ accusation (The Hill)

Read On!

🗓️  Check out the Week Ahead for City of Austin public meetings and hearings.

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Austin City Hall Week in Review (Week of March 3, 2025)

ℹ️ 2025 Essential Resources for Navigating the City of Austin

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ New program aims to attract international firms to Austin (Austin Business Journal)

The Austin area is no stranger to international companies, but a new effort is aimed at enticing more of them.

Opportunity Austin, a regional economic development organization, recently announced it has started the Global Austin Launch Pad, a program to provide class A office space, a support network and strategic guidance to international companies relocating or establishing a presence in Central Texas. The program already has attracted one company — Polish IT consulting firm ITFS Solutions.

That business has locations in Seattle and Chicago in addition to Austin, according to its website. It’s unclear how big ITFS Solutions' presence is in Austin, but an Opportunity Austin spokesperson said it has plans to make Austin its North American headquarters. ITFS Solutions didn't immediately return a request for comment. The Global Austin Launch Pad program was created through a partnership between Opportunity Austin and Brown Advisory, a Baltimore-based investment management and advisory firm that has an Austin office... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ After an increase in calls, Austin's 911 mental health response team will operate around the clock (KUT)

When someone calls 911 in Austin, they are given four options: police, fire, EMS or mental health services. Since the addition of the mental health option in 2021, the demand for it has only gone up.

Mental health specialists answer anywhere from 400 to 500 emergency calls a month, but Marisa Malik, director of crisis services and justice initiatives at Integral Care, said the true demand is much higher.

“The number of mental health calls that are coming in and that first responders are responding to far exceed the number of calls that are referred [to us],” Malik said. “Our teams aren’t currently staffed to scale to meet the needs of all the calls that would be appropriate for us to respond to.”…  🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Georgetown council members give initial approval to Unified Development Code updates (Community Impact)

Georgetown City Council members approved the first reading of an ordinance calling for six amendments to the city’s Unified Development Code during a Feb. 25 meeting. A second reading on March 11 is required before any UDC amendments go into effect, per city documents.

A second reading on March 11 is required before any UDC amendments go into effect, per city documents.

The proposed amendments include changes to the city's development processes, parking, residential fences and more. The updates are in line with the vision, goals and policies within Georgetown's 2030 Comprehensive Plan, per city documents… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ $1B development EastVillage brings work, life, play to northeast corridor (Community Impact)

Across from the Samsung Austin Semiconductor on East Parmer Lane sits the site for EastVillage, a $1 billion, 425-acre master-planned community. The mixed-use development is still under construction, and will bring residential, retail, restaurants, entertainment and green space upon opening.

At full occupancy, the development is expected to host 12,000 people a day, including residents, hotel guests and on-site workers. A central lawn with a concert pavilion will eventually host events and bring in day travelers.

Although the development will be in the heart of the northeast tech corridor of Austin, EastVillage plans to bring quality-of-life features like nature preserves and hike and bike trails for the estimated 50,000 nearby employees, according to developer Reger Holdings… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Gov. Abbott could delay setting special election in Houston to help D.C. Republicans (Houston Chronicle)

Gov. Greg Abbott is in a position to hand U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson an assist as he manages a razor-thin majority of Republicans in Congress. With the death of U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, on Tuesday, the U.S. Constitution gives Abbott the power to decide when to call an election to fill the remainder of Turner’s term on Capitol Hill.

But the statutes don’t give him a deadline, meaning Abbott has the authority to leave the seat open for as long as he wants. With Turner’s death, Republicans now have a 218 to 214 majority, plus three vacancies.

That means every vote becomes important on issues like big spending bills that recent history shows Johnson has struggled to keep the GOP together on. Just on Wednesday, President Donald Trump was trying to convince GOP holdouts to support Johnson's temporary six-month spending deal to keep the government open beyond March 14.

Just four defections from Republicans could put the plan in peril. Abbott has yet to announce a special election for the 18th Congressional District in Houston. Abbott told me at the Governor’s Mansion on Thursday that he hasn’t made any decisions yet on when he might call a special election for the seat. Republicans could be in a position to regain two seats as soon as April. Two special elections are scheduled in Florida to fill those seats on April 1.

Once the results in those two GOP-leaning districts are certified, Republicans would likely be back up to 220 votes. But that number could drop back to 219 shortly thereafter. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, a Republican, is expected to vacate her seat to become Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations. Abbott has experience calling special elections for congressional districts.

Just last year after U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, died in July, Abbott set the special election for November to cover the final weeks of her term in office, even as Turner was being elected on the same day to start a new term for the district on Jan. 3. In 2021, when U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, a North Texas Republican, died of COVID-19, Abbott called a special election to fill the seat within about two weeks. The special election was held about two months later at the next regularly scheduled election on the first Saturday that May… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ Sen. Mark Kelly fires back at Musk over ‘traitor’ accusation (The Hill)

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) hit back at tech billionaire Elon Musk after he called Kelly a “traitor” for visiting Ukraine and demanding the United States stand with Ukrainians in their ongoing war with Russia.

“Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do,” he wrote on the social platform X on Monday in response to Musk’s accusation.

“You are a traitor,” Musk had written under a previous X post from Kelly in which the lawmaker had reflected on his trip to Ukraine over the weekend. “What I saw proved to me we can’t give up on the Ukrainian people,” Kelly wrote in the post.

“Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin,” he added.

Kelly, a former U.S. Navy combat pilot, toured a military hospital and interacted with Red Cross personnel during his visit to Ukraine. It was his third visit to the country since 2023… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Ontario says it will slap a 25% surcharge on US-bound electricity (BBC)

Ontario’s premier, the leader of Canada’s most populous province, announced that effective Monday it is charging 25% more for electricity to 1.5 million American homes and businesses in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan. “I will not hesitate to increase this charge. If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference in Toronto.

“Believe me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people who didn’t start this trade war. It’s one person who is responsible, it’s President Trump.”

Ford said Ontario’s tariff would remain in place despite the one-month reprieve from Trump, noting a one-month pause means nothing but more uncertainty. Quebec is also considering taking similar measures with electricity exports to the U.S… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

🟪 Discover how Bingham Group’s expertise drives results and

explore our experience here.

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