Lake Resort Coming to Lake Travis

Mahogany, A Lake Resort is a proposed resort-styled residential community planned for a 242-acre site on Lake Travis. Check out the details below.

Major Lake Travis Resort Project Sold

A 242-acre site on Lake Travis expected to become a resort-style residential community is in new hands.

Turnback Development LLC, part of the Tharaldson family of companies, has purchased the tract in Lago Vista from Dallas-based Winston Capital Corp. for an undisclosed price. Winston bought the property in 2006 and laid out a plan for 700 living units including condos and single-family homes in an amenity-rich development.

Dillon, Colo.-based Equilibrium Resorts will manage the development and operation of the property for Turnback. The tract with roughly 11,000 linear feet along the lake is southwest of the intersection of Lohman Ford Road and FM 1431.

The new owners have renamed the site -- previously known as Turnback Ranch – Mahogany, A Lake Resort. Equilibrium's concept for the project includes a Mediterranean style village, resort hotel, estate-size lakefront home sites, single-family home sites and townhomes. All told, there will be about 700 residential units.

Meanwhile, Winston Capital is already developing the Waterford on Lake Travis project, a 460-acre master-planned development just outside Lago Vista and south of the Mahogany site. The Waterford project includes more than 300 homes, as well as Waterstone, a 71-unit, luxury lakefront condominium project that is currently under construction and expected to be ready for occupancy by August 2008. The condo project is already 40 percent pre-sold.


Austin Business Journal – February 18, 2008

"The Office" has Expanded!!

Crosswind Realty Office Expansion & Relocation

“The Office” has expanded!! That’s right – we needed a bigger boat! Our new 43-foot office has officially brought us into the ‘yacht’ category! It is a Formula 40 PC. We just love it and so do Mick’s clients!

We’ve also dropped anchor at a new location! "The Office" has been moved North Shore Marina at The Hollows on Lake Travis (no longer at Emerald Point Marina). North Shore Marina was voted the Best Marina in Texas last year!

For those of you who may not know, when Mick Hooper asks you to meet him at "The Office", you're in for a treat. His 43-foot yacht, named "The Office", offers a hint at how Mick views his career of helping his real estate clients make the most of their opportunities. As Mick puts it, "I like to put the fun back into what most people consider a very serious business." And he delivers - with his unique ability to not only offer a local perspective, but valuable insider information that clients can only get from someone who knows - and lives - the dynamic Lake Travis lifestyle.

By the way, just say the word, and with the generator Mick & Tracy will fire up the margarita blender and you can enjoy one of ‘Mick’s Margarita’s’ (mean or mild) while touring the lake!

Guess Who is Ranked #1?

The self-proclaimed "Live Music Capital of the World" is booming, thanks in large part to Austin's high-tech industry (key employers include Dell, IBM and Apple) and the University of Texas, which provides the area with a steady stream of engineering talent. In addition to music, the city also has a thriving film industry. Its projected gross domestic product growth by 2012 is second only to Mobile, Ala., and first among the largest 100 metro areas in the country. Metro area Austin's population is expected to grow nearly 15% by 2012.

FORBES Ranks Austin #1 Fastest-Growing Large Metro!

To compile our list, we looked at all of the country's 363 metropolitan areas, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau has a geographic region with a "core urban area" of at least 50,000 people. Because many small metro areas are high growth--and because we wanted to show growth in large cities as well--we split the group into two classes: the largest 100 metro areas (with at least 528,000 people) and everyone else. We use projections run for us by Moody's Economy.com to show growth in "gross metropolitan product (GMP)," between 2007-2012.

Of course, if one looks at economic growth in the country's largest 100 metros, the usual suspects jump to the top of the list. With an estimated 32% GMP growth from 2007-2012, Austin, Texas, is the winner for big metros. Atlanta, Seattle, Orlando, Houston and San Jose, Calif., also appear high on the list. What do they all have in common? They're tech hubs with proximity to universities and a healthy increase in population. Austin's population, for example, is expected to increase by nearly 15% by 2012, according to Moody's Economy.com forecasts.

Bruce Katz, director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, says there are several factors to take into consideration when measuring the pulse of a metro area: innovation, human capital, infrastructure and the actual quality of a place.

"These assets drive everything," says Katz. Some ways to measure them: the number of patents a metro area produces (innovation), the number of college graduates that live there (human capital), the amount of passenger miles its residents travel (infrastructure) and the vibrancy of its downtown area (quality of place).

A glance at the country's most economically healthy large metro areas underscores his point. Computer manufacturer Dell (NASDAQ: DELL - news - people) and the University of Texas anchor Austin's tech community. San Jose receives an influx of grads from places like Stanford and UC-Berkeley who want to work in Silicon Valley. Atlanta, home to Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, is also the headquarters of UPS (NYSE: UPS - news - people), CNN and AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T - news - people), the largest cellular carrier in the United States.

To be sure, GMP is not the only method of measuring a metro area's economic vibrancy. Population growth, job growth, housing starts and personal income growth are all other factors to consider. However, we felt that an examination of the output of goods and services in a metro area was perhaps the purest method of determining how vibrant an economy will be several years down the road.

In the current economic climate, predictions for housing starts are open to the most uncertainty. Moody's forecasts take the current slowdown into consideration but do not account for a potential recession. A study compiled by Global Insight and released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in November found that the most significant losses in real GMP were concentrated in California, though every state has taken a hit.

FORBES, Brian Wingfield and William Pentland, 01-30-08

Spanking The Competition

Way to go, Austin! Another number one ranking; Austin topped Forbes’ 2008 list of America’s Fastest Growing Metros! Check out the details below in this recent ABJ article…Beautiful Lake Travis is only minutes away from Metro Austin. You can have the best of both worlds, and enjoy living the Lake Travis lifestyle!

Austin Economy Spanks The Competition

High-tech, a booming film industry and the University of Texas all helped propel Austin to the top of Forbes' 2008 list of America's Fastest Growing Metros.

The magazine ranked Austin No. 1 among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. The list sorted cities by their anticipated gross domestic product growth between 2007 and 2012. Austin's GMP, or the value of goods and services produced in the area, is expected to climb 32 percent over the five-year period.

Forbes credits the local boom to high-tech employers like Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) as well as the University of Texas, which is producing ample engineering talent.

Other cities that ranked high on the list include Atlanta, Seattle, Orlando, Houston and San Jose, Calif. The Forbes article points out that all of those cities share several key characteristics with Austin: They are tech hubs in close proximity to universities with growing population bases.

Forbes used GMP forecasts provided by Moody's Economy.com.

The regions of the country with the fastest growing metro areas overall are the Southeast and West. Forbes credits the lower costs of living and doing business in those areas for their higher anticipated performance.

Austin Business Journal – January 31, 2008