Not many people are aware of it, but the Austin Independent School District owns a lot of property in this town. According to AISD Superintendent Matias Segura, the district is one of Austin’s top five property holders. Now, with the district facing a budget crisis, Segura and other school leaders want to use those holdings to make money. But that doesn’t mean selling them off.

“As you know, once you sell property in the city of Austin, it’s unlikely you’ll ever, ever get it back,” Segura told the Chronicle. “So 'sell’ is not the word I like to use. I use the word 'monetize.’ Generally speaking, our goal is to retain the holding but monetize it and generate value from it.”

There are several ways the district can monetize its properties, Segura said. One is through the use of ground leases.

In a ground lease, an owner rents a property to a tenant, who is allowed to develop the site at their own expense and for their own profit during the term of the lease. Lease terms are often quite long, as much as 99 years, but when the lease ends the tenant returns the land and improvements back to the property owner.

AISD is already using the ground lease model with the former Allan Elementary. The old school, now known as the Anita Ferrales Coy Facility, sits on 18 gorgeous and very valuable acres in East Austin. It hasn’t served as a school since 2012, when it was repurposed as offices for some of the district’s nonprofit partners and the home of the Alternative Learning Center… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Highway coverings are coming to Austin. Here’s how to weigh in on design work (KXAN)

With Interstate 35’s expansion near downtown Austin poised to begin in the coming months, residents can help shape design work on the city-led initiative to add highway coverings to the interstate. The City of Austin’s Our Future 35 program is collecting community feedback through Aug. 2 via an online survey.

The Texas Department of Transportation’s I-35 Capital Express Central project is a $4.5 billion, eight-mile endeavor to expand the highway corridor, with the inclusion of sinking portions of the highway. Our Future 35 is working to develop public spaces above those lowered regions, with the possibility of up to 30 acres of new land via the highway caps.

More information on the city’s ongoing community feedback process is available online… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Delta to launch nonstop route from Austin to South Texas city (Austin Business Journal)

Delta Air Lines will add another new nonstop from Austin, the airline’s fourth new route from the airport this year.

Daily, nonstop service to Valley International Airport in Harlingen will begin Oct. 7. It will be Delta’s (NYSE: DAL) third intra-Texas route of the year, with service to McAllen and Midland/Odessa launched in April. The airline also started nonstop service to Nashville at the same time.

Many Austin business leaders have long said that direct flights from the local airport are key to economic growth because of the access they provide for business travel and tourism.

While some are bringing more flights to Austin, including low-cost carrier Viva Aerobus and Copa Airlines, others have pulled away. The airport is also working to renegotiate gate lease terms with all of its carriers… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Self-driving cars are coming back to Austin. Amazon's Zoox to begin testing in July. (Austin American-Statesman)

Austinites will soon see yet another self-driving car roaming the streets as Amazon’s Zoox has decided to add the Texas capital to its growing list of test cities.

Self-driving cars have been a source of growing concern and controversy after various incidents in places such as San Francisco and on the East Coast. However, to date, no such incidents have happened in Austin.

After a varied response locally to Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving cars, which hit a road bump in the form of a federal investigation last month, Zoox hopes to find a space in the city.

As the latest self-driving technology puts rubber to the road, here is everything you need to know about what Zoox is, when test drives will start and what happened to Waymo cars… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas electricity demand could nearly double in six years, grid operator predicts (Texas Tribune)

The state’s main electric grid operator has sharply increased its prediction for how much power demand will increase in coming years. If it’s accurate, the state would need to be able to provide nearly double the amount of power within six years.

Two factors led to the higher forecast: A new law allows officials to count companies’ requests for grid connections before they are finalized. And there has been a significant rise in requests from large users such as data centers, hydrogen production facilities and oil and gas companies that are electrifying their operations.

On top of that, the state’s population continues growing, Electric Reliability Council of Texas President and Chief Executive Officer Pablo Vegas told state lawmakers in a Senate Business and Commerce Committee hearing last week, repeating information he shared with the ERCOT board in April.

“All of that is putting together a picture of a very significant, different demand growth that is forcing us to really re-think how we’re looking at planning to make sure we can meet those needs and continue to deliver on the expectations of all Texans,” Vegas told lawmakers… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Cowboys ink deal with slot machine company as NFL, teams cozy up to gambling industry (Dallas Morning News)

The Dallas Cowboys have signed a multi-year deal with Las Vegas-based slot machine company Aristocrat Gaming. It will allow Aristocrat Gaming to show off promotional material all throughout AT&T Stadium, do in-game advertisements on the team’s jumbotron during games and more.

Though the deal won’t enable Aristocrat Gaming to set up its slot machines or establish any form of gaming inside AT&T Stadium, it’s all about driving traffic back to areas like Oklahoma where its NFL-themed slot machines are located in casinos like WinStar World Casino and Choctaw Landing in Hochatown. For Aristocrat Gaming, it’s the company’s fourth deal with an NFL team as it has partnered with the Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints.

WinStar was the first casino company to gain a partnership with an NFL team in 2018 when it became the Cowboys official casino. The Cowboys’ wide net as the world’s most popular sports team and North Texans’ appetite for gambling made the deal a no-brainer for Aristocrat Gaming, said chief marketing officer Mark Wadley.

“From a business perspective, the Cowboys’ proximity to Oklahoma is really important to us. A lot of the fanbase that goes up to WinStar and other casinos in Oklahoma come from Dallas,” he said. “So the opportunity to communicate with them as they are making their trip to those casinos is really important for us.”

Texans spend approximately $5 billion in legal gambling in neighboring states like Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and Nevada, according to Clyde Barrow, gambling policy expert at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. Another estimate from the Texas Sports Betting Alliance predicts that Texans also illegally gamble $8 billion within the Lone Star State. Aristocrat Gaming declined to disclose the specifics behind the deal like how much it’s worth or exactly how many years the partnership will last. But the partnership means that in-game signage and advertisements outside of the stadium are on the way for this upcoming NFL season.

Representatives for the Cowboys were not available for an interview at the time of publication. However, it’s the team’s next step in adding more content to the Cowboys brand, said Chad Estis, the team’s executive vice president of business operations. “We pride ourselves on aligning with world-class partners, and Aristocrat Gaming has been a trailblazer in the gaming industry for decades,” he said. “We are thrilled to work with the Aristocrat team on activation and branding opportunities throughout the year and to have our Cowboys marks featured on their slot machines nationwide.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

U.S. home prices have far outpaced paychecks. See what it looks like where you live (NPR)

Millions of Americans are already shut out of buying a home, and the cost of buying one continues to rise.

In past decades, it was common to find a house that cost roughly three times a buyer's annual income. But that ratio has skewed sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic, with home prices up a whopping 47% since early 2020. Median home sales prices last year were about five times the median household income, according to tabulations in a newly released report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, and there are signs it could get worse.

The double whammy of high prices and high mortgage rates has "left homeownership out of reach to all but the most advantaged households," says Daniel McCue, a senior research associate at the center.

The report finds that in nearly half of metro areas, buyers must make more than $100,000 to afford a median-priced home; in 2021, that was the case in only 11% of markets… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]

This fall will see elections for the following Council Districts 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor.

Declared candidates so far are:

Mayor

District 2

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes

District 4

District 6

District 7 (Open seat)

District 10 (Open seat)

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