NBA star Avery Bradley sues Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, alleging millions went missing "Another legal adversary — this one with a very high profile — is alleging wrongdoing against a prominent Austin real estate investor. Former UT basketball star and NBA champion Avery Bradley has sued Austin real estate investor Nate Paul over a multimillion-dollar investment Bradley said went wrong." (Paul Thompson, Austin Business Journal)
Texas Supreme Court says it can’t force the state to process deluge of applications for tax break expiring this year "The Texas Supreme Court declined Friday to intervene in a request from two renewable energy firms that say they’ll miss out on millions of dollars in tax savings from a program set to expire this year because an overwhelmed state agency failed to process their application in time. The Texas comptroller’s office has until Dec. 31 to get companies into the program, known as Chapter 313, and give them a 10-year discount on their property taxes." (Brian Lopez, Texas Tribune)
Austin's affordable housing portfolio grows in Hyde Park and South, East Austin "Austin's income-restricted affordable housing inventory got a boost in December after City Council voted to dedicate millions of dollars to new and existing living spaces across town. Action taken at the Dec. 1 and 8 meetings of the Austin Housing Finance Corp.—the city's nonprofit affordable housing arm overseen by council—forwarded the dedication of hundreds of new and existing housing units in Hyde Park, Hancock and South and East Austin. Council also set up the AHFC to provide for supportive living spaces for residents exiting homelessness." (Ben Thompson, Community Impact)
Staple South Congress bookstore closes one chapter to open another in Old Austin "After Lucy in Disguise announced its closure earlier this year, South Congress Books came to mind as one of the fearless few still working to retain a modicum of Austin soul in that increasingly soulless strip. As such, the store's December 28 announcement that it will be closing its current location in January feels a bit like the final domino in a long line of bad news for what was once one of the 'weirdest' of weird corners in our city." (Hannah J. Frías, CultureMap Austin)
Texas regulators investigating Atmos Energy for natural gas service failures during freeze "Gov. Greg Abbott sent letters to state Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Railroad Commission directing them to investigate why many of the company’s customers in North and Central Texas were left without the natural gas necessary to use their water heaters, stoves, and furnaces as temperatures plunged in the days before Christmas." (Niki Griswold, Austin American-Statesman)
Austin's rental market less competitive due to high pace of construction, study finds "Even with a constant flood of out-of-staters, Austin is one of the nation’s least competitive rental markets with 12 prospective renters applying for each empty apartment in the area. That’s according to RentCafe’s latest end of year report, which found that Austin ranked No. 6 among Texas markets and didn’t place at all in the list of 20 most competitive U.S. markets." (Cody Baird, Austin Business Journal)
