Quote:
Originally Posted by Plaid Shirts
Question for all you Austin people.
I live in Salt Lake City. Here, we always hear about how Austin is booming, growing, how it has such a young workforce and population.
With that, what is it about Austin that is making it such a booming, modern, hip city?
Also how is it that there is always skyscrapers being built? How much demand is there really for businesses and living in Austin.
Thanks!
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Simplist answer I can generate...
Because of lax rules (open container, nudity, no real pressure on pot) in conjunction with the University of Texas... a lot of young people came here in the 60s and formed a big happy commune sort of feel. From that, a world class music (enterainment scene) developed including bar districts that compete with New Orleans, etc. All of this was happening in the Barbeque capital of the world... believe it or not there are tons of tourists that do BBQ tours - and its WORTH IT.
The city wooed Semetech here in the late 70's/80s and the tech based population boom began, fueled by the university (empoyee pool) and really cheap cost of living (transplants). Good corporate jobs (IBM, 3M) and venture capital firms followed (which make austin an entrepreneur/start up haven).
As growth occured, the large environmentalist population here (also attracted by the university and culture) really drove to protect some sensitvie areas (endangered species / drinking water source) which limited sprawl unlike Houston or Dallas.
Around 2000, a few progressive people organized massive events that draw 100's of thousands, like ACL, SXSW, Fun fun fun and now F1 and Xgames. Additionally, a solid convention center was built downtown. Those events, along with larger conventions started to expose the Austin culture to those visiting from other states/countries... that is when the highrise boom started.
The highrise boom is partly enabled by 2 progressive mayors' vision to put 25K downtown and 100s of thousands more into the urban core to appease the environmental voice/curb sprawl. They realized that culture attracts jobs - that's the secret sauce. More importantly, the demand side was/is driven by young peole seeking a fun culture in warm weather with lots of job opps that were exposed to Austin through the big events. Most of the people drawn to these types of events are from NYC, Chicago, California, and thus where most transplants come from. The type of events (type of people they draw) is a critical point - because of where they come/came from, they tend to seek an urban living experience.
The result - Austin has a 99% rental occupancy downtown, almost no supply of new condos, and the highest downtown hotel occupancy rate in Texas. So you see a ton of residential and hotel going up... an office building every few years. Interestingly, the 24 hour nature of downtown is starting to create more demand for downtown office vs suburban... it becomes a recruiting tool for companies located in the heart of the culture.
It's been a flywheel growth engine... amazing growth that seems to accelerate. Fantastic chefs moving to town, companies relocating... so the culture and job opps only get better and continue to increase demand.
The negative is that Austin is constantly trying to catch up to the growth... highways are choked and cost of living is now the highest in Texas.
This place will look like Seattle by 2025.
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