Charles Heimsath Quotations

If it was a five-acre parcel, I think I would be very hesitant to try to build mid-range housing product in that location, but the fact that it's 50 acres means you can really create an environment that changes the character of the entire area. I think that's really the key to making this successful, because otherwise you're in kind of a sea of lower-income rental housing.

I think it reflects an aggressive positioning of the major national builders to capture market share. What they are doing is throwing a lot of product out in the market and hoping that the sales will match the starts.

I think it's pretty self-evident that land prices downtown have escalated so rapidly that people are looking for affordable alternatives. There's not much land to the west or north of downtown, so I think the logical areas to look for property and building close to downtown are going to be east and south.

I think there is a market. I don't know if there is a market for 700 units.

I think commercial property owners are going to be very surprised by (this) increase in appraised values, particularly since in most areas, rental rates have not increased by the same percentage that the appraised values have increased.

The Second Street Retail District, as it's evolving, will support a higher-end residential project such as one being proposed (by Benchmark).

Development has accelerated in that part of the region over the last few years largely due to the increasing traffic congestion on the north side of Austin. In many instances you can buy essentially the same home in South Austin or in Hays County that you would in Williamson County, and if you are working downtown, your commute time would be half as long.

As long as the job growth continues, we'll continue to see rapid sales of new single-family homes and absorption of apartment units.

It's a very appropriate location to consider a variance, given the fact that mayor has come out with statement he wants 25,000 residential units in the downtown area. Simple math would suggest if you're going to try to achieve that goal, you're going to have to do a lot of tall buildings.

The market is much stronger now. From an employment standpoint it's growing in a number of different areas, not just high tech. The growth rate is slower and, in my opinion, more sustainable, and the housing market is on very solid footing.