Texas Named ‘State of the Year’ for Business Facilities

Award recognizes Texas for having the most economically significant relocation and expansion projects of 2007.

Texas Earns 2007 State of the Year Title by Business Magazine

Texas was recognized for its top five expansion projects in 2007, which included Rackspace Managed Hosting with 5,000 jobs; Fidelity with 1,535 jobs; Maxim Integrated Products with 1,000 jobs; Fluor Corp. with 1,000 jobs; and Dimensional Fund Advisors with 800 jobs. Also, five projects in the state had the highest promised investment totals including Motiva Enterprises with $7 billion; NRG Energy Inc. with $5.4 billion; Eastman Chemical with $1.6 billion; Microsoft with $985 million; and CitiCorp with $450 million.

Four of the largest expansion and investment projects were awarded Texas Enterprise Fund assistance to either relocate or expand their operations in Texas.

PBS&J Makes Archaeology Discoveries in San Antonio

Excavation efforts under way for PBS&J at its Main Plaza Redevelopment project in San Antonio.

Archaeologists from PBS&J working with the city of San Antonio on the redevelopment of Main Plaza have made several discoveries telling of the plaza’s role in the Texas Revolution.

The excavation of the entrenchment, which was prompted by the construction of new stormwater drains for the redeveloped plaza, uncovered military and domestic artifacts including the possible tip of a Mexican officer’s sword, gunflints, buttons, ceramics and animal bone.

The Main Plaza redevelopment project is intended to restore its traditional use as a pedestrian plaza. In its new configuration, the plaza will link the historic San Fernando Cathedral to the nearby San Antonio River and will limit vehicular traffic to the northern and southern margins of the plaza. The project will also increase the size of the plaza by 50% and provide a venue for public events and activities.

Presswood Joins Innovative Developers as VP of Real Estate

Mark R. Presswood was hired as vice president of real estate for Fort Worth-based Innovative Developers Inc., a full-service real estate development and construction management company.

Presswood had been senior vice president of business development for the Fort Worth Cats Baseball Club since 2004. During that time, he managed construction of three, multi-million dollar facilities and the utility infrastructure to support LaGrave Field.

TMTA Hosts Margins Tax Workshop Focused on Transportation Industry

Texas Motor Transportation Association will host a Margins Tax Workshop in McAllen on April 8 to provide a better understanding of the new Texas Margins Tax for members of the transportation industry. Attendees will discuss financial accounting aspects of the margins tax and explored planning concepts that would minimize the cost to trucking companies and other industries in Texas.

For more information, visit www.tmta.com.

TLC Engineering for Architecture Acquires Piazza Engineering

Orlando-based TLC Engineering for Architecture recently acquired Piazza Engineering Inc. of Dallas. Piazza Engineering will become TLC Dallas LLC, the 10th office and 13th operating unit of TLC Engineering for Architecture.

Piazza Engineering, founded in 1995, has mechanical, electrical and plumbing expertise and diverse market experience that complement TLC’s. Both firms specialize in large public projects such as hospitals, airports, office buildings and schools.

TLC has provided engineering services for numerous projects in Texas including the Long Center for the Performing Arts renovation in Austin; the new Cedar Park Regional Memorial Center in Austin; and the Bayfront Plaza Convention Center and Arena renovation and addition in Corpus Christi.

Smith Seckman Reid Marks 40 Years of Business

Nashville-based Smith Seckman Reid Inc. is celebrating its 40th year of providing engineering and facility consulting services across the country. In conjunction with this significant anniversary, the company’s 11 offices will emphasize community involvement through participation in 40 charitable activities and events throughout the year.

SSR’s project experience has ranged in size from small facilities to multiple building projects exceeding 1,500,000 sq ft. Among its Texas-based projects is the Toyota Center in Houston.

Texas Brings Home National Beautification Awards

Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization, recently recognized Texas organizations, schools and agencies with 19 national awards for their commitment to beautification, waste reduction and litter prevention.

The Keep America Beautiful Awards recognize the best among its network of affiliates and volunteers across the country. The state affiliate Keep Texas Beautiful was honored as a diamond level affiliate, one of only six state affiliates to receive such recognition, for its successful promotion of the KAB mission and program support to local community affiliates.

TxDOT received two awards for its support of KTB - the Department of Transportation Partner Award and the Great American Cleanup Department of Transportation Partnership Award. The awards were created to recognize the high value KAB places on public-private partnerships. TxDOT annually partners with KTB and its more than 340 affiliate communities to support programs that remind Texans not to litter.

HCSS Makes List of Best Companies to Work in Texas

Houston-based HCSS, developer of construction field management, estimating and resource management software, was named No. 6 in the medium-sized companies category of the 2008 Best Companies to Workfor in Texas program. The rankings were published in a special section in the February 2008 issue of Texas Monthly. HCSS also made the list in 2006.

HCSS, along with companies from across the state, participated in a two-part process to determine the winners. The first part consisted of evaluating each company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking.

The survey findings reported that HCSS employees were most happy with the flexibility and authority to quickly address customer needs, relationships with their supervisor, care for co-workers, flexibility and benefits.

Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process in Texas with assistance from ModernThink LLC, who analyzed the data and used their expertise to determine the final rankings.

The ranked companies were recognized at a gala awards luncheon at the Renaissance in Austin earlier this year.

TREC Young Guns Announces 2008 Executive Committee

The Real Estate Council Young Guns selected its 2008 executive committee, which will guide its more than 150 members through the year.

TREC Young Guns is comprised of young commercial real estate professionals driven by a common vision to promote TREC involvement and to encourage participation in social, political and civic issues that affect the city of Dallas and North Texas area.

The 2008 TREC Young Guns executive committee includes Clay Roby of Crow Holdings as chairman; Ryan Aman of JP Morgan Chase as programs chair; Monica Libbey of Amegy Bank as programs chair; David Liggitt of CB Richard Ellis as programs chair; Kim Hopkins of RealEstateJobs.com as marketing and public relations chair; Zach Edwards of Gensler as parks chair; Holden Heil of Chicago Title as TREC involvement chair; and Dupree Scovell of Trammell Crow as membership chair.

Phoenix Company Distributes Metso Minerals for West Texas

Phoenix-based Road Machinery LLC, the Komatsu distributor, will be the exclusive distributor for Metso Minerals in Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas. Metso Minerals produces an extensive line of crushing and screening equipment for rock and minerals processing.