Austin Retail Market Robust, Unemployment Lowest In 2 Decades

AUSTIN, TX — CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, has released its second quarter 2018 Retail MarketView for the Austin market. showing a robust industry sector across the area.

Highlights of the study include:

• Occupancy scales even higher:
  • "Austin’s retail market remains at the top of its game," analysts wrote. "Already at cycle-high levels, occupancy has managed to inch even higher, hitting 96.4 percent this quarter." High demand prompts high rents, researchers noted, with some prime locations now demanding $40 and even $50 per square foot.
• Pflugerville welcomes massive new retail outlet:
  • A special shout-out to Pflugerville is included in the study by way of the massive LivingSpaces furniture store recently opened there. Already home to stores in San Diego, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Nevada and Arizona, California-based Living Spaces opened its first Texas store in May. The 500,000-square-foot facility is located near the corner of State Highway 45 and Heatherwilde Boulevard, just west of the Texas 130 toll road. By virtue of that real estate transaction alone, the numbers related to overall occupancy were impacted given the deal's massive scale. "Its fully leased deliver has pushed absorption from what would have been flat to a sizable, positive amount," analysts noted.
• Austin’s unemployment falls to 2.8 percent:
  • Austin’s thriving technology sector and its cachet as an entertainment haven have jet-fueled the local economy, with monthly unemployment in May dipping to 2.8 percent, analysts wrote. "This marks its lowest May rate in nearly two decades," researchers noted.
• St. Elmo Public Market begins construction in South Austin:
  • St. Elmo Public Market, set to be the city’s first true artisan food retail marketplace, has begun construction and is anticipated to open during Spring 2019, officials noted. When completed, the project will be home to a 40,000-square-foot public market, 108,000-square-feet of creative office space, 385 apartment units, and a boutique hotel.

You can read the full report by clicking here.

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>>> Top image via Shutterstock, chart courtesy of CBRE