🟪 Taylor approves $2.5 billion data center near Samsung chip plant (Austin American-Statesman)

🟪 SXSW launches search for CEO to lead festival operations from Austin (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 HACA to redevelop nearly century-old East Austin affordable housing community (Austin Business Journal)

🟪 Austin to roll out interactive digital kiosks following council approval (KXAN)

🟪 Dan Patrick adds data centers, prediction markets and THC to Senate priorities (Texas Tribune)

🟪 Dallas ISD voters to decide future of largest bond in Texas history (WFAA)

🟪 Record number of T.S.A. employees called out on Friday (New York Times)

READ ON!

☀️ Client Spotlight: Grubhub parent company seeks real estate for Austin expansion (Austin Business Journal)

A food hall with delivery service plans to open 120 locations across Texas, including a major push into the Austin market.

New York-based Wonder Group Inc., which acquired Grubhub in 2025 for $650 million, offers a variety of restaurant options under one roof. More than 60% of its business comes through delivery, according to Wonder Executive Vice President Jason Rusk. Wonder’s goal is to have enough locations to deliver food across the Austin metropolitan area, Rusk said. 

Wonder spaces also provide sit-down options. Its locations cook up different cuisines so customers who want various options can still order together. Restaurants inside Wonder include Yasas, Alanza Pizza, Burger Baby, Pop Salad, Happy Tuna, Bobby Flay Steak, Tejas Barbecue, El Diez Mexican Bowls and more.

Wonder is looking to secure real estate across the Austin metro and other Texas markets as it ramps up for a quick expansion. Of the company's 120 planned stores across Texas, Rusk said “many” will be in the Austin area. He did not specify how many would be here. Rusk was recently in Austin looking at sites. Target markets for Wonder include downtown Austin, Arboretum, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Kyle, Leander, Mueller, North Central Austin, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Southpark Meadows, Sunset Valley and Tech Ridge… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Taylor approves $2.5 billion data center near Samsung chip plant (Austin American-Statesman)

Over community opposition, Taylor City Council gave approval to a $2.5 billion data center center northeast of Samsung Electronics’ chip factory. 

The council voted unanimously to annex part of the proposed development and rezone it to support the 220-acre project proposed by Dallas-based developer KDC.

The site abuts Samsung’s 1,200-acre semiconductor manufacturing campus. Though still under construction, Samsung has begun limited operations at the site and is expected to produce its first chips this year.

KDC plans to build at least six large industrial buildings on its data center campus, according to city documents. The project includes electrical infrastructure, detention ponds, a dedicated right of way and commercial spaces.

It’s expected to bring Taylor more than $145.9 million in revenue through taxes and utilities and provide more than $70.7 million to Taylor ISD over the next 10 years… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ SXSW launches search for CEO to lead festival operations from Austin (Austin Business Journal)

The South by Southwest festival has undergone large shifts in the past year. It will see more change ahead as the company behind the festival is looking for a new full-time CEO. 

Jenny Connelly, the director in charge of SXSW and chief digital officer for Penske Media Corp., confirmed the CEO search has begun.

“We did start a CEO search,” Connelly said. “We haven't found that person yet. I will stay on the board. I will stay connected to the company.”

Connelly, who has run the festival for the past year by splitting her time between California and Austin, said the CEO position will be fully based in Austin. She doesn’t have a timeline on when the role could be filled. She expects there will be a transition period where she stays as the director in charge to help the new CEO.

Connelly was named director-in-charge of SXSW in April 2025 after longtime SXSW ringleader Hugh Forrest departed the role of president and local point man for the festival’s operations. Connelly has been on the SXSW board since 2021.

Connelly is based in Los Angeles, which is where Penske is headquartered. She spent the past year visiting Austin and helping the festival undergo big changes for its 40th iteration, which took place from March 12-18… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ HACA to redevelop nearly century-old East Austin affordable housing community (Austin Business Journal)

The Housing Authority of the city of Austin is planning to redevelop an affordable East Austin housing community built nearly 90 years ago. It's doing so with the goal of more than doubling the number of units at the site.

Pathways at Santa Rita Courts was built in 1939. It has been used to provide housing to the elderly, disabled and displaced in the years since, according to HACA’s website. Today, the property is vacant and surrounded by a chainlink fence, with debris in the yard, broken windows throughout and several apartments missing doors. But that could soon change, as a site plan application to redevelop the site is making its way through the city’s approval process.

The 7.7-acre property at 2300 E. Second St. is home to 97 units across 26 buildings, according to the site plan application. The redevelopment proposal would see 16 buildings demolished, while 10 historic buildings would remain and be renovated. Several new buildings would also be built to bring the unit count at the community to 200… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin to roll out interactive digital kiosks following council approval (KXAN)

Austin plans to set up a series of interactive digital kiosks in busy areas around the city, after the City Council voted Thursday to update local rules and allow the devices to be placed on public sidewalks and streets.

The kiosks, led by the city’s Economic Development Department in partnership with Transportation and Public Works, are designed to offer real-time transit information, wayfinding tools, event listings and emergency alerts. Officials said in a press release that the system will also help highlight local businesses, all without a cost to taxpayers.

“This program represents an important step in Austin’s continued evolution as a connected and innovative city,” Anthony Segura, Deputy Director of Austin Economic Development, said. “Interactive kiosks will make it easier for residents and visitors to navigate downtown, discover local businesses, and stay informed about City services.”

Each kiosk would include features such as transit schedules, nearby business listings, cultural events, civic resources and free Wi-Fi. Users would also be able to transfer directions or information from a kiosk to their mobile device. All units will meet federal accessibility requirements, including adjustable screens, text-size options and high-contrast settings… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Pushback on data centers is abundant (Austin Business Journal)

On Feb. 12, a coterie of Round Rock residents and advocates calling themselves Protect Round Rock gathered in front of the city north of Austin's library. Equipped with signs and bullhorns, they chanted as they marched to City Hall. They made their opposition heard during a meeting of a proposed 30-acre data center from Dallas-based Skybox Datacenters LLC.

After four hours of discussion and public comment, the Round Rock City Council ultimately voted unanimously to approve the zoning for the project. That prompted some in the group to vow to be heard next during election season. Others said they planned to move. Some plan to work with the city to establish better standards for future data center projects.

All in all, they vowed to continue the fight. Protect Round Rock updated its website to say: "We are not finished. We are not deterred. We are not going away. Collectively, we are a movement."

Like the rest of the country and state, the Austin-area's data center boom has coincided with a rise in citizen and municipality pushback. Neighbors have flooded public meetings and organized outside of them to express a range of concerns about everything from water use to noise to general concerns about the rise in the use of artificial intelligence… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Austin moves to limit new parking built near transit lines (Community Impact)

City Council is seeking to limit the amount of new parking that's build around future light rail lines.

Code amendments to cap the amount of parking built along transit corridors are now in the works after a March 26 council vote.

A resolution from council member Krista Laine calls to explore limiting off-street parking in new development near Austin’s equitable transit-oriented development, or ETOD, districts. Those zones are being implemented near planned Austin Light Rail lines through Central, East and South Austin… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Dan Patrick adds data centers, prediction markets and THC to Senate priorities (Texas Tribune)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday instructed state senators to study a broad range of policy issues ahead of next year’s legislative session, including prediction markets, data centers, THC and more, expanding on an initial list of priorities that included “preventing Sharia law” and investigating Medicaid fraud.

Patrick’s latest list of interim charges corresponded with many of the priorities House Speaker Dustin Burrows laid out Thursday.

Data centers appeared three times on Patrick’s priorities, with the lieutenant governor — who leads the state Senate — instructing various committees to assess the water demands of “energy-intensive technologies,” including data centers; to consider how to meet electricity demands of data centers but also “balance economic development benefits of this growth against the impacts on landowners, private property rights, water infrastructure, and community integrity;” and evaluate the costs of the sales tax exemption granted to data centers… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Speaker Dustin Burrows lists data centers, property taxes and annexing slice of New Mexico among 2027 priorities (Texas Tribune)

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows directed lawmakers to study the secession of New Mexico counties to Texas, the development of data centers in the state, property tax relief and more in a list of his priorities for next year’s legislative session released Thursday.

The Lubbock Republican’s interim charges overlap with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s initial to-do list in their shared focuses on reducing property taxes, securing Texas from potential foreign threats and homing in on potential fraud and abuse in government spending.

But Burrows’ priorities cover a broader range of policy issues for House committees to tackle in preparation for the 2027 legislative session. Burrows also created three new committees on governmental oversight, health care affordability and general aviation.

He instructed the governmental oversight committee to study the implications of adding to Texas “one or more contiguous counties of New Mexico” and the process to do so, after welcoming a proposal out of New Mexico to allow its counties to band together and secede. While the Texas-New Mexico boundary is unlikely to shift next year, the proposal will likely appeal to pro-secessionists in Texas, some of whom are among Burrows’ conservative skeptics… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Dallas ISD voters to decide future of largest bond in Texas history (WFAA)

The Dallas Independent School District is asking its voters to approve the largest bond in Texas history at $6.2 billion. Among other things, the bond would improve safety and security, renovate and modernize all campuses, and build 26 new schools to replace some of the district's oldest campuses.

“The average age of those 26 campuses that are gonna be rebuilt is 70 years old. That goes back to LBJ’s presidency. Those campuses could qualify for Medicare today. We’re trying to teach kids artificial intelligence and those campuses, they’re having a hard time with artificial lighting,” Miguel Solis told us on Inside Texas Politics. Miguel Solis is a former DISD Board President and a passionate advocate for the bond. He says more than 100 community members are on the steering committee, providing guidance. And he says there have been more than 65 community meetings.

The bond will be split into four parts: Prop A: $5.9 billion to replace campuses, modernize buildings, increase security, Prop B: $144.7 million in technology upgrades, Prop C: $143.3 million in debt service refinancing, and Prop D: $26.3 million to repair and renovate district pools And it’s important to note that the bond will lead to a one-cent tax increase.

“The average price of a coffee across the United States of America is a little more than $3. This one-cent tax increase to the average homeowner is going to be $2.79 a month. Over the course of a year, it’s $33,” Solis explained. “Our bet is that the average taxpayer is going to be willing, possibly, to pay that $2.79 a month because inevitably, more kids getting a better education and better school facilities means the ultimate economic outlook for our community is going to go up because good grades lead to good lifetime opportunities.” Solis says he knows of no organized opposition to the bond… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Record number of T.S.A. employees called out on Friday (New York Times)

On Friday, more Transportation Security Administration employees called out of work than on any other day of the partial government shutdown. Conditions in airport security lines have deteriorated since Feb. 14, when Congress allowed funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees T.S.A., to lapse during an impasse over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Since then, T.S.A. employees have been forced to work without pay, leading thousands of workers to call out and hundreds to quit altogether. With staffing slashed, wait times for security have stretched on for hours at some airports. Lines have spilled outside terminals. Desperate travelers have missed flights. And that was before Friday set a new record.

More than 3,560 T.S.A. employees — above 12 percent of the agency’s work force — called out on Friday, the highest number since the partial government shutdown began, Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. Friday’s call outs broke the record of just under 12 percent that had been set the previous day.

“During this time, over 500 officers have quit, and thousands more have been forced to call out because they can’t afford basic necessities like gas, child care, food, or rent,” Ms. Bis said. President Trump signed a memo late on Friday ordering D.H.S. to restore pay to T.S.A. employees. On Monday, the Trump administration deployed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who have not lost pay during the partial shutdown, to help carry out security functions at airports… 🟪 (READ MORE)

✅ Iran warns U.S. against ground invasion, as Pakistan holds diplomatic talks (NPR)

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf has accused the U.S. of planning a ground invasion as part of the next stage in the Iran war, and said such an intervention would be met with force.

Also on Sunday, Iran threatened to target American and Israeli universities in the Middle East as part of its war effort.

Meanwhile, ministers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt met in Islamabad today in an attempt to come up with a plan to de-escalate the war. Pakistan has offered to host talks between the U.S. and Iran "in coming days."… 🟪 (READ MORE)