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​​​NORTH TARRANT COUNTY – Officials announced “substantial completion” of the $1.6 billion I-35W reconstruction project—a stretch named one of the state's most congested highways​ by the Texas Department of Transportation.

The ten-mile North Tarrant Express Project runs from the I-30 interchange with I-35W near downtown Fort Worth to North Tarrant Parkway at the US 287 interchange.

The project added frontage roads, bypass lanes, and two managed TEXpress toll lanes in each direction.

The newly designed corridor connects to the North Tarrant Express project along I-820 (North Loop) and SH 121/183 (Airport Freeway) adding an additional 13-miles to the TEXpress Lanes in Northeast Tarrant County.

A final reconstruction phase is designed to provide congestion relief throughout the corridor, with added capacity from auxillary and bypass lanes, longer weaving distances and expanded frontage roads.

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​​​​​IRVING – Nokia signed a lease for 350,000 sf in The Sound at Cypress Waters to consolidate DFW operations and relocate its North American headquarters.

Nokia will occupy two buildings in the new lakefront mixed-use development located along the 362-acre North Lake.

Specifically, the company will occupy 100,000 sf at 3100 Olympus Blvd., and 250,000 sf at 3201 Olympus Blvd.

Nokia’s target date for completion of the consolidation is early third quarter 2019.

​Check out Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Office Market Research.

​​​​HOUSTON – Wilson Investment Properties, a Silicon Valley-based firm, acquired an industrial portfolio of 19 buildings across six industrial parks in July 2018.

The 460,000-sf portfolio is primarily located on the northwest side of Houston.

​​Check out Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Industrial Market Research.

​​​​​HARLINGEN — City leaders and MRE Capital launched a $4.5 million project to turn the nine-story Baxter Building into Baxter Lofts, a largely low-income 24-unit apartment development.

The nine-month renovation of the 91-year-old building​ caps a 30-year push to turn one of the city’s biggest eyesores into the downtown area’s crowning jewel.

When the office building opened in 1927, it stood as the tallest building in the Rio Grande Valley at 106 S. A St.

​​​​DFW – North Texas apartment building activity is down a tad so far this year, b​ut the 1.5 percent decline in apartment-building permits couldn't knock the metro off its perch as one of the country's busiest apartment-building markets.

According to new data from RealPage, 20,191 multifamily homebuilding permits were recorded in the Dallas ​​​​​​area during the 12-month period ending in May 2018, second only to New York City.​

With the huge number of new rental units hitting the market in the last few years, rents in the area are barely rising, and in some DFW neighborhoods, apartment rents are actually falling.

At midyear 2018, Dallas-Fort Worth apartment rents were up only 1 percent from a year earlier.

​Check out ​more Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Multifamily Market Research​.

​​​THROCKMORTON COUNTY – The 10,3-acre Comanche Crest Ranch—on US 380 between the towns of Haskell and Throckmorton—is ​for sale.

Located two hours west of Fort Worth, the hunting and cattle ranch has five large fenced pastures, more than two dozen small lakes and stock ponds, and miles of roads and fencing.

Unlike other big Texas ranches with sprawling homes and buildings, Comanche Crest has just been used for cattle grazing and hunting.

​​​​GRAND PRAIRIE – A California-based wireless products firm is opening a new distribution center in the Metroplex.

C2 Wireless Inc. has leased 65,000 sf of industrial space in the Riverpark 1100 business park at 3275 W. Trinity Blvd.

The company is consolidating warehouse operations currently located in New York and California to North Texas.

​Check ​out Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Industrial Market Research.

​​DFW – The median time U.S. homeowners stay put has risen to 13.3 years—twice the time between moves back in the early 2000s.

But in many Texas cities, homeowners are changing addresses more frequently.

Frisco residents have one of the lowest median time between moving of any U.S. cities—just 7.5 years according to a new study by consumer research firm ValuePenguin.

In addition, folks in McKinney (7.9 years), Allen (9.5 years), and Denton (9.5 years) move more often compared with the rest of the country.

In the DFW area, residents stay the longest in Garland (13.4 years) and Richardson (13.3 years).

In Texas, the median time residents have been in their homes is about 12 years.

The longest tenure is in El Paso where the median home residency is 14 years.

​​See also: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Housing Market Research​.

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​See​ also: Austin-Round Rock Housing Market Research​.

​​​HOUSTON – Weingarten Realty Investors started demolition work in early July 2018 to clear the way for The Driscoll, a luxury high-rise that will tower above the River Oaks Shopping Center off West Gray St.

The 30-story, 318-unit tower will sit atop 10,000 sf of retail.

Units will range from 900 sf to a 3,000-sf penthouse.

​Che​ck out Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Multifamily Market Research​.

​​​​​​CELINA, COLLIN COUNTY – Phase one of a new single-family development, called Chalk Hill, recently broke ground in far North Texas.

The phase—consisting of 157 lots out of 440 planned in the development—will be located at the southeast corner of Preston Rd. and CR 102 in Collin County.

Check out Chalk Hill’s site plan (beginning page 16).

​MANSFIELD – Texas Health Resources and Adventist Health System are building a new health care campus in North Texas.

Texas Health Hospital Mansfield, scheduled to open in late 2020, will offer a full variety of services, including a 24/7 emergency room, general surgery, women’s care, orthopedics, and interventional cardiology.

Construction on the four-story, 195,400-sf, 83-bed facility will begin in fall 2018.

The $150 million campus will also include an 80,000-sf medical office building that will house primary care and specialty practices.

​​HOUSTON – Hines began construction on its new tower at the former Houston Chronicle site downtown. It is expected to open in late 2021.

The one ​million-sf, 47-story tower will be situated diagonally on the 800 block of Texas Ave. 

Law firm Vinson & Elkins and Hines will be the tower’s anchor tenants, leasing 212,000 sf and 155,000 sf, respectively. 

Hines will relocate from Williams Tower in the Galleria area. 

Vinson & Elkins will relocate from 1001 Fannin, where the firm currently leases more than 300,000 sf.

​See also​: Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Office Market Research​.

​​​RICHARDSON – State Farm Insurance and Dallas developer KDC have filed plans to build a major data center in Richardson's Telecom Corridor.

The new tech center would be built on Lookout Dr. south of State Farm's regional office campus at the CityLine​ development.

In 2015, KDC built a 129,180-sf data center at the corner of Lookout and Plano Rd.

Now State Farm and KDC are requesting to build a second 130,629-sf data center with office space on more than eight acres at 1510 E. Lookout.

Check out Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Industrial Market Research.

​​​SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR) released its June 2018 MLS housing statistics​ for the eight-county region including Atascosa, Bexar, Frio, Karnes, Kendall, La Salle, McMullen, Medina, and Wilson Counties.

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Check out more San Antonio-New Braunfels Housing Market Research.

​​​​​WACO – Magnolia Vacation Rentals will buy the 90-year-old downtown Grand Karem Shrine building from McLennan County at 701 Washington Ave.

The building's only tenants—the county health services department and the child support court—occupy less than a third of the 53,000-sf building.

County commissioners approved the $1.1 million deal with Magnolia Vacation Rentals LLC, which is expected to be finalized in the next few months. 

​GEORGETOWN – The city’s housing pipeline is poised to get a boost.

The city council rezoned about 314 acres on the suburb's northern fringe into a new planned unit development called Berry Creek Highlands.

The council also approved zoning to allow high-density, multifamily development off Wolf Ranch Pkwy. near I-35.

Berry Creek Highlands is planned as a mixed-use community with up to 1,500 residential units, according to city documents.

The site is on the west side of SH 195 near the Sun City neighborhood.

​See also: Austin-Round Rock Housing Market Research.

​​SPRING – Construction began in July 2018 on a 50,000-sf, two-story building at 1401 Lake Plaza Dr. and a 50,000-sf Star Cinema Grill in the 60-acre CityPlace mixed-use development within Springwoods Villages.

The 1401 Lake Plaza Dr. building is expected to be completed in first quarter 2019.

It will have 25,500 sf of ground-floor retail and 26,750 sf of second-floor office space.

The Star Cinema Grill at 1495 Lake Plaza Dr. will include ten screens with around 1,200 seats.

It is expected to be complete​ 2Q 2019.

​See also: Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Office and Retail​ Market Research.