BG Reads Weekend (5.4.2025)

Author

A.J. Bingham
May 04, 2025

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[TOP CLICKS OF THE WEEK]

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The Week Ahead at Austin City Hall and Weekend News below

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

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[WEEKEND NEWS]

🟪 Developers in East Austin work to remain agile in face of shifting market conditions (Austin Business Journal)

East Austin is growing fast, but that growth may not include more office space after what's springing up is done.

A variety of topics related to development in East Austin — such as plans to pivot away from office construction, the region's attractiveness to businesses and new real estate projects, and what it could look like in the coming years — were tackled during a panel discussion at the East Austin Growth Summit that included developers and one of Austin’s go-to real estate attorneys.

One major discussion point was how to remain agile and adapt in an office market experiencing high levels of vacancy.

Austin’s office vacancy clocked in at an elevated 24.5% in the first quarter, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE. That has caused a pause in new projects, and experts say the under-construction pipeline of office developments in the city could be cleared out entirely by the end of the year.

For Presidium, that means a shift away for now from office development at its River Park project on East Riverside Drive, Piano said. As a result, the initial phase of that project will feature a mix of residential, hospitality, retail and entertainment uses… ✅ (READ MORE)

🟪 Study: Austin sees drop in rent prices compared to 2024 (KXAN)

A recent study showed the rent prices in Austin dropped when compared to 2024, and the city took the No. 2 spot for where rent decreased the most in the U.S. SmartAsset, a financial technology company, said it ranked 100 of the largest U.S. cities based on the percentage change in average rent prices for all homes between February 2024 and February 2025.

So far in 2025, six of the 100 cities saw a decrease in rent, including Austin.

Aurora, Colorado, had the largest relative annual drop in rent at -3.05%, but Austin followed closely behind with a -2.34% drop in rent between 2024 and 2025, according to the study. SmartAsset said the average rent in Austin in 2024 was $1,684, and the current rent has dropped to $1,644… ✅ (READ MORE)

🟪 City leaders excited about Colony Park, East Austin's huge new neighborhood (Austin Business Journal)

After 13 years, dirt is finally turning on a big, new neighborhood called Colony Park.  

The mixed-use project first announced in 2012 is a public-private partnership between the city of Austin and Catellus Development Corp., the firm behind the 700-acre Mueller development, which transformed Austin's old airport into a haven for homes, a children's hospital, shops and more.

Colony Park — rising across the street from the Travis County Expo Center on Decker Lane — is projected to have up to 3,000 residential units, about 230,000 square feet of office space, 130,000 square feet of retail space and 42 acres of parks, trails and open space on 208 acres of city-owned land. Affordable housing is part of the plan. 

City officials, developers and community activists gathered April 3 to celebrate the groundbreaking. 

Overall, Colony Park will be developed over 10 to 15 years, according to a Catellus representative. The first phase of development will consist of infrastructure, open space and construction of row homes, townhomes and single-family homes. The first move-ins are expected to take place in mid-2027… ✅ (READ MORE)

🟪 Gov. Abbott signs $1B education savings account bill; program to launch in 2026 (Community Impact)

Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2 into law on May 3, putting Texas on track to become at least the 30th state to enact a program that uses public funds for private education. Speaking to over 1,000 attendees in front of the governor’s mansion, Abbott said he was signing “the largest day-one school choice program in the United States.”

The program will launch at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year. “Gone are the days that families are limited to only the school assigned to them by [the] government,” Abbott said. “Today has arrived and empowers parents to choose the school that is best for their child.”… ✅ (READ MORE)

🟪 UT System chancellor leaves to lead University of California (Texas Tribune)

University of Texas System Chancellor JB Milliken will leave the 256,000-student system to take a new out-of-state position as University of California president, system officials said Friday.

"We are fortunate to have had Chancellor Milliken at the helm of the UT System for almost seven years,” said UT System Regents' Chair Kevin P. Eltife in a statement. “The board and I are grateful for our close and very productive relationship with him, and we are proud of what we accomplished together. He has led the UT System admirably and innovatively."

Milliken was appointed as UT System chancellor in 2018 after spending years as chancellor for City University of New York, and has also served as president of the University of Nebraska. Milliken was named the new president of the University of California on Friday, and will enter that role in August, according to statements from UC and the UT System… ✅ (LINK TO FULL STORY)

🟪 Warren Buffett announces his retirement and warns the trade war will hurt America (NPR)

Warren Buffett wants the United States to knock off its trade war.

"Trade should not be a weapon," the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO said on Saturday morning, at his annual shareholder meeting in Omaha.

The United States "should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best," Buffett told the crowd of thousands in a downtown arena, who broke out into applause.

Buffett did not mention President Trump, whose sweeping new tariffs have ignited a global trade war, roiled financial markets, and sounded wide-ranging alarms about a recession.

But his rebuke of Trump's policies answered one of Wall Street's biggest questions of this weekend: Would Buffett weigh in on the trade war and its massive disruptions? Many of those attending this "Woodstock for Capitalists," which draws tens of thousands of people from around the world, told NPR they were waiting for Buffett to speak out on the tariffs.

Buffett, 94, also closed the event with major news, announcing that he would be stepping down as CEO at the end of the year, in favor of his long-designated successor, Greg Abel. He received a prolonged standing ovation from the audience in Omaha's CHI Health Center… ✅ (READ MORE)