Real Estate Blog

This week I thought you might like to know how things are shaping up with progress on the Formula 1 race track. The developers have been told to have the facility ready to host a race by June 2012. Needless to say, they're not taking any long lunch breaks on the site. Right now they're working 12-hour days and still taking Sundays off, but that may change if they get in crunch mode. Most of the current work is going into clearing ground for a future parking lot.

Frankly, it doesn't look like much if you go out there, so let's turn our intention to what is impressive right now -- The numbers. TexasEconomicImpact.com just finished a study for the promoters and concluded the project will spend $144.9 million in 2011, which will pump $68.4 million in wages into our local economy, and drop the Austin unemployment rate from 7.3 to 7.1 percent. With renewed concerned about the national -- really the global -- economy thanks to unrest abroad, particularly in Libya, this is especially good news. (And remember, they're making a special effort to reach out to minority and woman-owned businesses.)

If you're on Facebook and want to get a stream of updates on progress at the track, go to facebook.com/F1Austin and click "Like." Following the progress of the project will help real estate investors evaluate what's going on in the surrounding neighborhoods and start mapping out a strategy for acquiring property in the area (or within a reasonable driving distance from the site.) Short-term, I think we're going to see a lot of workers and their families needing a place to live. That will gradually shift to long-term staff, the people who will be running the track on a day-to-day business.

In tandem with those developments, supporting businesses and venues looking to capitalize on traffic in and out of races will begin to make their presence felt -- entertainment, lodging, dining, and so on. There's going to be a tremendous demand out there for commercial space and even if you are primarily involved in residential real estate investing, that doesn't preclude buying a tract of land or an existing structure and holding it for a profitable resale.

I'll keep you updated on work in months to come, but this is definitely a "pulse point" in the Austin economy and one we want to watch carefully.