Wall St. Journal Takes Note of Gas Drop

The Wall Street Journal has taken note of the recent decline in energy prices and its effect on the local economy:

The torrid pace of oil and gas exploration pumped billions of dollars into regions such as North Texas, bringing stronger housing prices, lower unemployment and soaring tax revenue as drilling rigs rose in urban neighborhoods. Many residents benefited directly from royalty checks and land-lease payments that soared toward $30,000 an acre as recently as this summer.

"We were all sitting over here in a kind of blissful stupor enjoying a great market compared to the rest of the United States," said commercial-real-estate broker Jack Huff. "Until 30 days ago, there was no feeling at all that anything going on in the rest of the country affected us."

The Journal notes that the price of oil has fallen by more than half from its all-time high of $145.29 a barrel, while natural gas is off nearly half from its 52-week peak of $13.577 per million British thermal units, finishing Tuesday at $7.219 per million BTUs.

The economic gap between the Lone Star State and the rest of the country is narrowing. In August, the state's unemployment rate of 5.1% was a full percentage point better than the 6.1% national mark; that difference shrunk to 0.8 point in September at 5.2% versus 6.0% nationally. More specifically in Cowtown, the growth in sales-tax revenue has begun to slow, and unemployment is rising.

The bright side from the Journal:

Some in Fort Worth argue that even if gas production declines drastically, it has left the local economy in a better position to survive the broader national downturn. The city has saved much of its natural-gas windfall in a rainy-day fund, and has put the rest toward long-term capital projects that won't evaporate if drilling slows.

Camp Bowie Stripling & Cox Set For New Shopping Center

Shoppers along Camp Bowie Boulevard will have new choices in 2009 as the closed Stripling & Cox store will be torn down to make way for a new shopping center. According to Globe Street, Armstrong Development Properties Inc. has purchased the site and intends to tear down the old building and construct a 23,100-sf strip center of high-end retail called The Shops at Camp Bowie.

Plans call for a bank, a restaurant and upscale specialty shops. The plan is to have the project ready to open in late summer or early fall 2009. Southwest Fort Worth is an attractive place for retail with a vacancy rate 0.5% lower than the citywide average and rents on Class A space $1.50 a square foot higher than the city as a whole.

DFW Leads Nation in New Jobs

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington led the nation's metropolitan areas in year-to-year job increases during the month of August. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 59,800 more jobs in this area when compared to August of '07. According to the BLS, unemployment in the metroplex in August was 5.1%. Nationwide, the rate is 6.1%.

Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown was 2nd among major metropolitan areas with 53,400 new jobs. The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area ranked 7th in new job creation, while College Station-Bryan was 8th.

Hotel Planned for Old United Way Building

A a 150-room Hampton Inn is planned for the former United Way of Tarrant County building at

210 East Ninth Street according to Globe Street. The location is immediately northeast of the Fort Worth Convention Center. Plans call for the hotel to open in 2011.

The old office building will be torn down and new hotel will be built and managed by Pearl Real Estate. This marks Pearl's third hotel investment in the downtown area. The company already owns the Embassy Suites at 600 Commerce St. and the Holiday Inn Express currently being built at 1111 W. Lancaster St.

The United Way relocated their headquarters office to 1500 North Main Street.

Tarrant to Lose 8 Starbucks

The Startlegram reports on the 8 Starbucks locations in Tarrant County that are to close. 3 are in Cowtown, 4 in Arlington. 1 is in White Settlement but that doesn't really matter because no one has ever heard of White Settlement. The store on McCart Avenue couldn't have been open more than six months. Perhaps such poor planning is the reason for the company's poor performance lately?

over in big d, the coffee chain is closing 21 stores.

Here's the Tarrant coffee places that are closing:

View Larger Map

Lone Star State Tops For Business

CNBC today revealed the results of its second annual study of America's Top States for Business. Broadcasting from Cowtown, Correspondent Scott Cohn announced that Texas was at the top of the list:

Texas takes over the number one spot from last year's Top State, Virginia. "Clearly, Texas benefits from the current strength in the energy industry," Cohn said. "But Texas is putting together a truly diverse business climate, with high scores in areas like technology and transportation."

To determine the rankings for America's Top States for Business, each state was scored – using publicly available data – on 40 different measures of competitiveness. States received points based on their rankings in each metric, which were then separated into ten broad categories: Cost of Doing Business, Workforce, Economy, Education, Quality of Life, Technology and Innovation, Transportation, Business Friendliness and Access to Capital.

Here's the top 5:

1. Texas
2. Virginia
3. Utah
4. Idaho
5. Colorado

The worst states for busness? Here they are:
46. Mississippi
47. West Virginia
48. Rhode Island
49. Hawaii
50. Alaska

Cowtown Vets to get New Clinic

Beginning in 2001 veterans in Fort Worth needing outpatient medical services will be served in a new $50,000,000.00 facility at the corner of I-20 and Campus Drive. The Dallas Morning News reports that Duke Realty Corp. has won a contract to develop and manage the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ new clinic.

Construction of the 213,029-square-foot building is slated to begin in the late fall. and will reportedly be the largest outpatient clinic development scheduled by the VA. The clinic will include surgical rooms and outpatient recovery rooms.

Fixing up Woodhaven

A real estate developer has made a second multi-million dollar apartment purchase in Cowtown's Woodhaven area. Carlos & Costanzo LLC recently closed on the 176-unit Willows of Woodhaven complex. The company is promising to fix up the complex, telling Globe Street that plans call for spending $200,000.00 on improvements in an attempt to boost the property's meager 62% occupancy rate.

The latest acquisition, which reportedly valued the complex at $3,850,000.00, is next door to the 208-unit Huntington Apartments which the firm purchased back in April at a reported cost of $3,100,000.00

While the single family housing market has slowed down, developers and apartment analysts remain bullish about the Metroplex rental market, citing a strong economy and continued job growth.

The Woodhaven area has seen its share of troubles over the years but Carlos Vaz, a partner in Carlos & Costanzo sees brighter days for the eastside, telling Globe Street, "The area is going to get better."

Let's hope he's right.

Dickies to Purchase Workboot Maker

Williamson-Dickie Mfg. Co., maker of Dickies brand work clothes announced today that it has purchased Kodiak Group Holdings Inc., Canada’s leading manufacturer and distributor of work and outdoor footwear.

The deal calls for Kodiak to operate as an affiliate of Dickies. The company will continue to manufacture and distribute its footwear and apparel through its existing channels in Canada. Begun in 1912, Kodiak is best known up north for its Kodiak and Terra brand work boots.

“This acquisition continues our North American and global growth strategy, which in part includes identifying brands and products that mirror the values and authenticity of Dickies,” said Philip Williamson, chief executive officer for Dickies. Terms of the deal were not released.

Williamson-Dickie was born in Fort Worth in 1922. From its beginnings making bib overalls, the company has expanded in to all types of outerwear, work apparel, as well as school and work uniforms. Since it is privately owned, the firm is not required to release sales figures, and doesn't. Hoover's online estimates 2006 sales at $1,100,000,000.00.

Cowtown One of Top Places for Biz Launch

Fort Worth ranked No. 9 on CNNMoney.com's list of the best places to live and launch a new business. Among the reasons cited were the city's "laid-back tax structure" as well as the various incentives the city offers for companies that locate in one of the its enterprise zones.

According to CNNMoney the hottest industry in Fort Worth (as well as dallas) is the life sciences - the region boasts nearly 500 biomedical technology businesses, and tourism.

Cowtown was one of the biggest cities to make the list.

Startlegram Exports Jobs to India

The Star-Telegram is outsourcing part of its ad production department to Express KCS, Editor & Publisher reported today. The move will cost 26 Fort Worthians their jobs at the local paper.

The move had be widely expected since the paper was purchased by the McClatchy newspaper chain. Several other McClatchy-owned newspapers have announced similar moves.

Based in San Jose, Express KCS has operations in Gurgaon, India.

XTO Reports Record Earnings

All those gas wells you see around Cowtown are pumping money into the pockets of Fort Worth-based XTO Energy. The company released its financials for the 4th quarter of last year, announcing record production and cash flow.

XTO said the for last quarter daily production was up 30% from the fourth quarter of 2006. Total revenues for the fourth quarter were $1,590,000,000.00, a new record, and a 33% increase from 2006. Quarterly earnings for the 4th quarter were $464 million, an 8% increase from fourth quarter 2006. Operating income for the quarter was $813 million, a 15% increase from fourth quarter 2006.

For the quarter daily gas production averaged 1.67 billion cubic feet (Bcf), up 36% from fourth quarter 2006 daily production of 1.23 Bcf. Bob R. Simpson, Chairman and CEO attributed the record numbers to new acquisitions stating, "These producing properties and leasehold acquisitions, totaling about $4 billion during 2007, added immediate growth impact and even more important, expansive upsides for future growth."

DFW Growth to Continue

The rapid growth of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex is expected to continue unabated for the next five years are so. That's according to a new article in Forbes. Gross metropolitan product growth, is projected to increase 20.51% from 2007-2012. That number places the region in sixth place among large metro areas. Austin, which ranked first among metropolitan area's projected growth was the only Texas city ahead of the metroplex. Houston came in 8th.

If you are looking for that small town feel, but still desire an area with increasing opportunities, you might consider Texarkana. The area, which ranked second in projected growth among smaller metro areas is expected to grow by 28.57% over the same period.