Texas Business reports: ARLINGTON--A month after acquiring a new property in Texas, The Connor Group sold one of its other properties in the Lonestar State.

AUSTIN — For 30 years, community organizations in the city have fought rising land prices to maintain affordable housing in their neighborhoods, often by buying, rehabbing and renting out one house at a time.

Texas Business reports: STEPHENVILLE, Texas—Tarleton facilities planning officials are gearing up for a $2.4 million construction project that will transform the western edge of the Stephenville campus—the Rome Street Redevelopment project.

Texas Business reports: AUSTIN—AIC Ventures   acquired a 140,000-square-foot production facility located in New Britain, Connecticut.

Texas Business reports: COLLEGE STATION--Both sellers and buyers can find good news in the most recent outlook for the Texas housing market. For sellers, the good news is that 2011 Texas home prices increased for the second consecutive year and are likely to do so again this year. For buyers, the good news is that prices went up only modestly, and the 2012 home appreciation rate is expected to be less than the historical norm.

Texas Business reports:  In the aftermath of the Great Recession, it is critical to reexamine the definition of what is affordable to a homebuyer and how the measures of housing affordability play out for average households in Texas and the United States, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. 

Texas Business reports: HOUSTON—Weingarten Realty Investors, an owner, manager and developer of shopping centers, agreed to sell its wholly-owned industrial portfolio to DRA Advisors LLC. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission approved a real estate deal that calls for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to sell 2,014 acres of the state-owned, 2,867-acre Fortress Cliff Ranch, while retaining roughly 850 acres to expand Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Texas Business reports:  The University of Texas at Arlington is adding a new Master of Science in Real Estate - Sustainability to its portfolio of sustainability-focused academic programs.

Texas Business reports: The Connor Group, a real estate investment firm based in Ohio, doubled its presence in a fast growing Dallas-area market. 

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION—Existing home sales across the state surged in February, reflecting a stronger market, an improving economy and “better weather than February last year,” said Real Estate Center Research Economist Jim Gaines.

Texas Business reports:  Five restaurants including a new concept, MAVS Sports Grill, will be among the first retail tenants in UT Arlington’s 20-acre College Park District development, scheduled for completion this summer.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the Circle Court Ground Water site, in Willow Park, Texas, has been proposed to be added to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites, a list of sites that pose risks to people’s health and the environment.

 AUSTIN – They hide in plain sight, beneath vacant lots or neighborhood parks. Decades-old trash dumps dot the Austin area, holding everything from banana peels to microwaves and, in one case, medical test monkeys buried in plastic bags.

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Real estate developer Harwood International reached a lease agreement with Emirates in the Rolex Building.

BEAUMONT — This industrial city is poised to lose one of its most significant cultural landmarks — and for once it has nothing to do with oil, gas or the Gulf.

 Texas Business reports: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—Ryan, a tax services firm with the largest indirect tax practice in North America, opened a new office location in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—HomeAway Inc., a provider of online vacation rentals, opened its third Austin office, which brings 235 employees from the customer service and sales teams to the Penn Field campus, located at 3601 South Congress. 

Texas Business reports: IRVING—TRT Holdings plans to relocate and consolidate its offices from Irving to Dallas.  

Texas Business reports: Downtown Houston's historic post office property has been selected as the site for the tenth annual Urban Land Institute (ULI) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. 

 Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—Trammell Crow Company and USAA Real Estate Company are building a 700,000 square foot Class A speculative distribution facility at Mountain Creek Distribution Center in Carlisle, PA.

Texas Business reports:  LOS ANGELES—Luxe added the historic Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa in Dallas,  making it the newest Luxe branded property.  

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS—Nathan Grace Real Estate, an independent real estate company based in Dallas, added the Dallas real estate group, Christy/Norcross/ Thomas (CNT). 

Texas Business reports:  LOS ANGELES—Thomas Properties Group’s affiliate, TPG/CalSTRS  LLC, has completed the sale of the 806,004 square foot, three-building property known as Brookhollow Central in Houston.

Texas Business reports:  Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business has published its quarterly Keller Center Research Report, an online compendium of academic articles focused on residential real estate research and summaries of scholarly journal articles and books relevant to real estate sales agents.

Texas Business reports: MILFORD, Mass.—Manhattan Software, a provider of enterprise real estate software, opened an office in Texas as part of the company's on-going expansion.

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION--Sales of existing single-family Texas homes in November were up 9 percent from a year ago, according to the most recent Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. 

Texas Business reports: The Connor Group, a real estate investment firm based in Ohio, on Tuesday purchased Arboretum Estates in Richardson, Texas. 

Mark Sheffield's Tahitian Village house, outside of Bastrop, burned to the ground on Labor Day weekend this year. Fires burned through 1,500 homes and killed two people in the Bastrop area. Photo by Eva Hershaw.

BASTROP — A month and a half after wildfires started their destructive sweep through Central Texas, Bastrop resident Mark Sheffield has finally cleaned up the debris and gotten rid of the slab on which his house once stood.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—“Sold” is what sellers hope to hear 174 times on November 12th at the Marriott Westchase Hotel in Houston as the City's Housing Authority auctions off its portfolio of scattered site properties.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—Whitestone REIT, a real estate investment trust that acquires, owns and operates Community Centered Properties, announced that Skechers USA leased 10,000 square feet of space for a new outlet store at its Windsor Park Centre location in the City of Windcrest, near San Antonio, and plans to open for business in the spring of 2012.

Texas Business reports:  FORT WORTH—Global Income Trust Inc., a non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on acquiring global real estate assets, has acquired Heritage Commons IV, a three-story Class A office building, in Fort Worth, Texas for $31 million.

Texas Business reports:  A New Jersey firm bought a Corpus Christi international airport property.

 Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation acquired a 46,253-square-foot industrial building located at Pinson Drive and Business Center Drive, Neuces County, Corpus Christi, Texas, at a purchase price of $4.9 million.

Texas Business reports:  LTC Properties Inc. acquired, in a sale-lease back transaction, a skilled nursing property built in 2005 with 196 licensed beds in Pasadena, Texas, for a purchase price of $15,500,000.   Additionally, the company bought a vacant parcel of land in Amarillo, for a purchase price of $844,000 and entered into a commitment, in an amount not to exceed $8,250,000, to fund the construction of a 120-bed licensed skilled nursing property.

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—The Houston Housing Authority has directed the sale of 171 homes and 3 development lots located throughout the Houston metropolitan area. 

Texas Business reports:   National Commercial Auctioneers (www.bid-reo.com) announces a five-day auction event to liquidate over 100 bank-owned properties in Texas, September 26-29, and October 3, 2011.

Texas Business reports:  The General Services Administration awarded an $11 million lease was awarded to Frost National Bank, Trustee, for a San Antonio property, according to an award notice released through Federal Business Opportunities.

Texas Business reports: COLLEGE STATION—When it comes to responsibility for warning guests about dangerous indigenous animals and insects, Texas statutory law generally protects landowners from claims resulting from injuries received from naturally occurring hazards.

Texas Business reports:  STAG Industrial  Inc.  of Boston bought a 101,500-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Fort Worth.

Texas Business reports:  An Illinois firm , Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust Inc. bought the Houston shopping center Sawyer Heights Village in a joint venture with RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust.

Texas Business reports: ViaWest, one of the largest privately held data center and managed service providers in North America, opened its twenty-second data center facility, Synergy Park, located in Richardson.  

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—Somerset Association Management, an Associa company, won the management contract for the Towers of Town Lake and the Plaza Lofts in Austin.

Texas Business reports: SAN ANTONIO—USAA Real Estate Company sold the 5th Street Crossing, a mixed-use, transit-oriented development located on 3 acres at 351 North 5th Street in Garland's Old Town Station. 

Texas Business reports:  The 772^nd Enterprise Sourcing Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio hired four northeastern real estate firms to create real estate developments at various Air Force installations, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—BuildFax, creator of the largest commercial and residential permitting database in the United States, joined forces with Equifax Inc. to give property & casualty insurance carriers a more complete view of underwriting risks while uncovering any key changes to their portfolio since policy inception. 

Texas Business reports: Corpus Christi—The Texas Attorney General’s office resolved a portion of its ongoing investigation into the disposition of the late Robert C. East’s estate.

Texas Business reports:  Houston—Adrian Levale Cole and Albert Terrance Watkins, both of Houston, have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a multi-million-dollar mortgage fraud scheme, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas legislature toughened private property rights in a bill which was signed into law Monday.

Texas Business reports:  Asset Revitalization Solutions LLC bought $18 million in commercial real estate loans secured by Jacksonville Area properties from an undisclosed seller.

 Texas Business reports:  National Commercial Auctioneers [www.natcomauctions.com] announces additional properties to the catalog of the two-day real estate auction event to sell bank owned properties in South Texas on May 16 and 17, 2011, according to chief executive Stephen Karbelk.

Texas Business reports:  The Connor Group completed the third largest sale in the company’s 20-year history, closing on a deal that will pay it $33.25 million for The Domaine, a 270-unit luxury apartment complex in Plano.

Texas Business reports:  McKinney—Irvine, California-based Premier Business Centers plans to open a new location in McKinney.

Texas Business reports:  Here is the latest information on the Austin housing market from the  Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.  

Texas Business reports:  Austin—According to the Texas Quarterly Housing Report released today by the Texas Association of Realtors, Texas homes are continuing to maintain their value in the first quarter of 2011 despite a decrease in sales volume, indicating that the economic recovery continues in Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Site Selection Group, a full-service location advisory firm, agreed to merge with Business Economic Incentives, an economic incentives firm.

 Texas Business reports: Siemens Financial Services  Inc. (SFS Inc.), the U.S. unit of Siemens' Financial Services division, recently completed a $10.9 million real estate financing to support the development of a new San Antonio healthcare property by Mohr Health  LLC.

Texas Business reports:  The Bascom Group LLC acquired The Davis Building, an urban infill mixed-use property through a receivership sale.

Texas Business reports:  A Virginia company won a $6.8 million contract to lease public buildings in McAllen, Texas.

Texas Business reports:  Dallas—Behringer Harvard announced invested in The Domain at Eldridge, a 320-unit multifamily community slated for development in Houston's Energy Corridor, one of the metro's largest employment districts.

Texas Business reports:  Bond Properties acquired the remaining assets of the developers of Escondido, a luxury, private golf and lakeside residential community located west of Austin.

Texas Business reports:  Here is the latest information on the Wichita Falls housing market from the  Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

Texas Business reports:  National Commercial Auctioneers announces a two-day real estate auction event to sell bank owned properties in South Texas on May 16 and 17.

Texas Business reports:  BBVA Compass announced plans for the construction of a new eco-efficient corporate office building in Houston located at 2200 Post Oak Blvd.

Texas Business reports:  Here is the current information on the Victoria housing market from the  Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. 

Texas Business reports:  Austin—T. Stacy & Associates and Walton Street Capital closed on a new loan on its Bank of America Tower at 6th and Congress that frees up all development parcels of any debt.

Texas Business reports:  Hilco Real Estate and Counsel RB announced a tentative new date of April 20, 2011, at 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) in Wilmington, Delaware, for the auction of the former Emivest headquarters in San Antonio.

Texas Business reports:  Houston & Kemah—A Houston parcel of land on Airport Boulevard is set to sell at $1.5 million.

Texas Business reports:  Houston and Kemah—American International Industries  Inc. announced that it received an offer of $15 million to purchase the 287 acres owned by the company located in Galveston County.

Texas Business reports:  Here is the current information on the Texarkana housing market from the  Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

Texas Business Reports:  Here is the current information on the Temple-Belton housing market from the  Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.  

Texas Business reports: The Connor Group, a real estate investment firm based in Ohio, last week expanded its Dallas-Fort Worth portfolio by more than 300 units with the addition of Knightsbridge Apartments.

Texas Business reports:  AccentCare, a home healthcare company, is relocating its corporate headquarters from Irvine, California, to Dallas, a move that will create more than 100 new jobs in the Dallas area.

Texas Business reports  Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, a downtown health resource for more than 35 years, opened a larger facility at The Shops at Houston Center.

Workers in hazmat suits check the status of another cleanup site

Texas Business reports: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added a Midland site to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. 

2009 Waxahachie Crossing Schematic

Texas Business reports:  An Illinois firm bought a Waxahachie shopping center for $15.5 million.

Texas Business reports:  McGregor—Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and the City of McGregor signed a lease agreement allowing SpaceX to expand the size of its rocket development facility in McGregor.

Texas Business reports:  The Dallas-based Allie Beth Allman & Associates will represent the Christie’s brand in the counties of Dallas, Collin, and Denton.

Texas Business reports:  Crescent Resources  LLC plans to begin construction this month on the Circle West Campus development at Austin’s intersection of West 25th and Longview Streets by the University of Texas.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas Attorney General’s office recently resolved the state’s enforcement action against a Cameron County couple that unlawfully subdivided, sold, and leased several residential lots in the El Jardin and Magic Valley subdivisions.

Texas Business reports:  Plano—A 68-year-old Dallas man has been indicted in a commercial real estate investment scheme in the Eastern District of Texas, recently announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales.

Texas Business reports:  Edge Capital Partners LLC opened a Dallas office.

Texas Business reports:  Reserve at Summit Rock LP, based in Horseshoe Bay near Marble Falls, closed recently on a 21-acre parcel overlooking holes 17 and 18 of the Summit Rock Golf Course, a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course.

Texas Business reports:  Caringo Inc., a provider of scalable object storage software for full spectrum of secure, self-managing, compliant and high performance hybrid cloud storage, today announced its move to new corporate headquarters in Austin on North Capital of Texas Highway.

Texas Business reports:  Acacia Research Corporation’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Acacia Research Group LLC, has relocated its corporate headquarters to Frisco.

Texas Business reports  USAA, a financial services provider,selected Addison as the location for its new Financial Advice Contact Center, which is expected to employ up to 200 people by the end of next year.

Jonas Rios of ConnectAmarillo.com is reporting that a new Courtyard by Marriott has opened in Amarillo, Texas.

Texas Business reports: A North Richland Hills firm bought an Indiana appraisal firm.

Texas Business reports:  The federal financial regulatory agencies issued final supervisory guidance today on sound practices by financial institutions for real estate appraisals and evaluations, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas announced. 

Texas Business reports:  Weingarten Realty acquired two retail shopping centers totaling 636,000 square feet. 

Texas Business notes this story by Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News:  A McKinney apartment community seized by lenders has been sold to a Tennessee investor.

Texas Business reports:  AmREIT Inc. announced the redevelopment of the Woodlake Square Shopping Center, a grocery-anchored, urban in-fill shopping center located at the intersection of Westheimer and Gessner in Houston.

Texas Business notes this story by Carrie Alexander for the Austin American-Statesman: Las Casas Verdes, near the junction of Longview Road and Cameron Loop not far from Brodie Lane, will feature 20 semi-custom single-family homes that conserve water and use the sun to generate electricity and heat water.

Texas Business notes this story by Allan Turner of the Houston Chronicle:  A group of Texas history buffs has purchased a vacant, partially submerged 19-acre tract near the San Jacinto Monument from the estate of the late Houston lawyer John O'Quinn with plans to restore it to its 1836 appearance and open it to the public as an extension of the battleground complex.

Texas Business notes this story by Kiah Collier of the San Angelo Standard-Times: Another piece of San Angelo’s river-downtown development puzzle came together at Tuesday’s City Council meeting — with some convincing.

Texas Business reports. Furniture Brands, Inc. has leased 109,386 square feet within the Airtex Industrial Center in Houston, Texas,  Pannattoni  Development Co. announced in a press release. 

Texas  Business recommends this column by  Cheryl Hall of the Dallas Morning News:  Worth Ross can't remember a dull day on the job, but some are more challenging than others.

Texas Business notes this story by Shonda Novak of the Austin American-Statesman:  Tim Green thought he got a great deal last month when he bought a condominium in a South Austin project at an auction.

TexasBusiness.com notes this story by Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News: Shoppers will have to hurry to get a deal on new sofa or dining table at the RoomStore on North Central Expressway in Plano.

TexasBusiness.com notes this story by Harvey Rice of the Houston Chronicle: An ordinance intended to keep houses from being built on rapidly eroding Galveston beaches was derailed by the City Council on Thursday just as it was about to become law.

TexasBusiness.com notes this story by Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News:  Electronics recycler Cexchange LLC is moving its operations from Addison to Carrollton.

TexasBusiness.com points to this story by Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News:  Houston-based investor Hartman Income REIT Inc. has purchased an office building on one of Dallas’ busiest intersections.  Hartman acquired the 15-story Gateway Tower at the northwest corner North Central Expressway and LBJ Freeway from KBS Realty Advisors.

TexasBusiness.com notes:  One of Dallas' oldest regional shopping centers has been handed over to lenders. The owners of Valley View Center mall have quietly transferred title to the 37-year-old mall at LBJ Freeway and Preston Road to a lender group headed by Bank of America, reports Steve Brown and Maria Halkias of the Dallas Morning News. 

TexasBusiness.com  notes: Frontier Equity, an Addison-based real estate investment firm, has purchased the three-building Overton Centre in southwest Fort Worth, marking the largest office deal in Tarrant County this year.  Frontier Equity, a subsidiary of Holt Lunsford Commercial, bought the 447,917-square-foot property July 9, according to deed records, reports Sandra Baker of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

An investor has bought a vacant store near Southwest Center Mall and plans to convert it into a shopping center. SRS Real Estate Partners said Friday that it has sold the former Target store at 4343 Gannon Lane near Interstate 20 in Dallas to Lys Holdings LLC of Irving, reports Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News. 

The sale of Waco-based American Amicable Group is complete, the new owner announced Tuesday.  The Canadian company Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. paid $145.3 million to acquire American Amicable from the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, reports Bill Teeter of the Waco Tribune-Herald. 

HMS Holdings Corp., better known as the parent company of Healthcare Management Systems, will move its headquarters to 223,498 square feet at 5615 Highpoint Drive in Las Colinas, reports Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News. 

But the foundation on which they built their business venture came from an illicit source, federal prosecutors said.

After massive cracks in a hillside, and a collapsed retaining wall caused occupancy certificates for 27 homes to be revoke, Centex Homes has received a permit to make preparations build a new retaining wall.

Houston is enjoying another month's increased single-family home sales due to the tax credit.