Texas Will Add 294,100 Jobs In 2019, Dallas Fed Says

Texas will add almost 300,000 jobs this year according to the Dallas Fed, the Offices Two at Frisco Station topped out recently, and DFW ranked fifth overall in a recent ranking of best summer travel destinations. We have details in this week’s roundup of real estate news.

Texas Will Add 294,100 Jobs In 2019, Dallas Fed Says

Texas will add 294,100 jobs in 2019, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas forecast recently. Texas employment will jump by 2.3 percent, reaching 12.9 million by December 2019.

“The Texas Employment Forecast suggests jobs will grow 2.3 percent this year (December/December), with an 80 percent confidence band of 1.3 to 3.3 percent,” the Dallas Fed said.

“Job growth in the fourth quarter of 2018 was 2.6 percent instead of 2.4 percent,” said Keith R. Phillips, Dallas Fed assistant vice president and senior economist. “This small revision, along with continued gains in job growth and leading indicators, has resulted in a further increase in the job forecast for this year. While the manufacturing and mining sectors will likely slow from very strong growth in 2018, the overall economy is expected to remain quite strong. The current forecast suggests job growth this year will equal that of 2018. Gains likely would be even stronger, however, if it were not for the historically tight labor markets that have left many job openings unfilled.”  

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

The Offices Two at Frisco Station Tops Out Construction

Everyone knew that The Star, the home of the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters and practice facility, would goose quite a bit of development — and the latest of that, The Offices Two at Frisco Station, topped out construction earlier this month.

The six-story office building will open in October, and has 210,000 square feet of space. It sits on the corner of Cowboys Way and Gridiron Road.

The Class A office building is part of the 242-acre mixed-use Frisco Station, which wraps around The Star complex, the Omni, and retail and restaurants.

VanTrust is the office developer for Frisco Station and partner in the $1.8 billion development with Hillwood and Rudman Partnership. The design-build contractor is Manhattan Construction, with HKS as architect and Kimley-Horn the civil engineer. Cushman & Wakefield’s Clint Madison, John Fancher, Doug Jones, and Christy Thelen will market and lease the building, and the company will also provide property management services.

“It is always exciting to celebrate the topping off of a building, particularly when it is our second Class A office building in the Frisco Station Development in two years,” Chris McCluskey, Director of Development for VanTrust in Dallas, said in a press release. “This milestone coincides nicely with the strong preleasing momentum we have seen.”

DFW Ranks Fifth in List of 2019’s Best Summer Destinations

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ranked fifth overall in a recent ranking of best summer travel destinations in the U.S., WalletHub said.

The metro area came in sixth in travel costs and hassles, 17th in local costs, 22nd in attractions, 33rd in activities, 41st in weather, and 44th in safety.

“WalletHub developed a ranking of the cheapest U.S. destinations that are also the easiest to reach,” the company said. “In total, we analyzed 100 of the largest metro areas across 40 key indicators. Our data set ranges from cost of the cheapest flight to number of attractions to weather.”

Austin-Round Rock came in second on the list, while San Antonio-New Braunfels came in 12th, El Paso was 18th, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland was 19th. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission ranked 56th.

Other metros in the top five included Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford (1); Washington D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria (3); and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (4).

Source: WalletHub