Dallas October 2021 Key Take Aways
- Kimber shared that she is and will continue to follow the “ever changing law” regarding vaccination requirements. She continued to say that since the “privates are fighting the public; the feds are fighting the states; and the states are fighting each other, there is no great answer to share at this time”.
- Laila Assanie with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shared the following:
- There has not been much change from last month to October with regards to the economic activity.
- The September employment numbers are “quite strong and up quite a bit” so that was good news.
- Unfortunately, the labor shortages and supply chain issues are still a big challenge for many businesses and currently there seems to be no end in sight.
- Steve Bruszer with Spring Valley Construction Company, shared that as a construction business owner, he continues to be “dumbfounded” that with all that’s going on around the industry, such as the following items: 1) chain restrictions; 2) the political climate; 3) rising pricing delays; 4) long lead times; 5) the outlook shows that inflation will be an issue into 2022; and 6) materials shortages, just to name a few issues. He continued to ask, “how does all of that lead up to the amazing number of projects and growing back logs for so many in my industry who all continue to stay so busy, what will it look like when the other shoe drops?”.
- Scott Lynn with Cache Realty Capital, agreed with Steve that everyone is very busy, which is good news, but with that being said, the bad news is that “inflation is here, it’s real, it’s serious and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon”. He continued to say, “our economy at present is being compared to the days of the Jimmy Carter Era which was terrible for the economy”.
- Scott flew into Los Angeles last week and could see from the airport a lot of ships sitting out in the harbor waiting to come inland to be unloaded. He learned from being in L.A. that it’s a trucking and logistics and transit problem and what it all comes down to is the trucking industry needs drivers.
- Scott also shared that he feels that Covid has become manageable, so more people are returning to work in their offices as opposed to working from home.
- Jon Arita with Terracon Consultants feels the same as others have already stated regarding being “busy and blessed with all the industrial activity that’s happening”. He also shared that they are also having issues finding employees so it’s an “all hands on deck situation and they are only limited by the physical ability to execute the work with the labor they have and the efforts to grow that number”.
- Sharon Friedberg with Fischer & Company, told everyone that rental rates continue to increase, sometimes within days of an initial quote, and she doesn’t see the rates going down in the near future. She is also “blessedly busy” and feels fortunate for the work.
- Walker Hairston with Falcon Realty Advisors reiterated that the supply chain issues have really been affecting retailers compounded with the labor shortage. He feels “very lucky to be in the DFW metroplex and busy with work”.
- Guest speaker Lynn Spencer, Executive Director of Economic Development in Forney, Texas, shared the following economic update about Forney, which is 21 miles southeast of Dallas:
- Forney currently does not have nearly enough retail and are having a difficult time attracting retailers due to the fact that they sit in the middle of Terrell and Mesquite, who both have a lot of retail available to consumers.
- A new Amazon fulfillment center has opened in Forney, so the e-commerce retail is doing extremely well and is very strong.
- Forney is up $2 million in the calendar year and at $9.5 million in sales tax collected, which are very positive numbers, considering they don’t have many retailers.
- There are “10’s of thousands new homes being built but there are no places to shop and buy home goods for these new homes”.
- The Forney unemployment rate continues to drop, which is good news.
- The population of Forney is 23,000 but that number is very misleading because Forney is actually “pretty small”.
- The “Action Plan & Budget Highlights” include the following:
- Small Business Development
- New Economic Development Center “EDC” Space Resource Center
- Business Retention & Expansion
- Public Relations
- Professional Services & Tools
- Business Retention & Expansion
- City Council is encouraging multi-family and mixed-use developers to build downtown Forney in hopes to “bring life to their downtown”.
- Forney ISD is in the process of building an occupational center and possibly a fire training academy.
- Forney Marketplace has “broken ground” and that is where Kohl’s will begin building in 2022. There are also a couple of restaurants that have committed and are currently breaking ground near the Kohls land.
- Trail House is a concept leaning towards family friendly activities and restaurants which “will be great”!
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