LyondellBasell Moving U.S. HQ From Downtown Houston To Galleria Area

Texas is starting to recover from the reputational blows it sustained last year, with new survey data showing more Americans outside the state agree it’s a good place to start a business.

A national poll of 845 Americans conducted by Austin-based Crosswind Media & Public Relations and Pulse Opinion found 65% of respondents view Texas as business-friendly, up 13% year-over-year. Houston and Dallas are the preferred cities for starting a business, according to survey data, followed by Austin, San Antonio and Amarillo.

“Texas is viewed favorably by 59% of America, and the state is seen as heading in the right direction, our latest national survey reveals,” Crosswind CEO Thomas Graham said in a statement. “This survey demonstrates the durability of the brand of Texas as being pro-business, family-friendly and a premier travel destination.”

Minority respondents were the most likely to see the state as a land of opportunity, with 83% of Hispanic Americans endorsing the state’s business environment, versus 67% of white respondents. Hispanic respondents also outpaced other ethnicities in their opinion of the state overall, with nearly 80% holding a positive view…

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When it was officially launched in May 2019, it was supposed to be a $2.9B office investment giant, with $1B of equity from one of the world’s biggest pension funds. Instead, WeWork’s investment division has turned into something far more complicated.

WeWork Capital Advisors, as the division is currently known, is selling a significant portion of its assets and defaulting on loans. At one of the biggest buildings it owns, its largest tenant has stopped paying rent and wants a lease restructure. That tenant is WeWork itself. 

The coworking giant's fund management arm is only a small part of the overall WeWork business, and its issues are secondary to its fight to make a profit and stave off a cash crunch. But it serves up another example of a grand plan in the WeWork empire going awry.

“Those legacy investments and businesses are not the company’s focus and they’re not devoting a lot of resource to them,” said Piper Sandler Managing Director Alex Goldfarb, who covers the companies shares. “Since [CEO] Sandeep Mathrani came in, the company has…

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The fatal collapse of the century-old Ann Street parking garage has left NYC’s parking owners and operators bracing for fallout.

A city law passed in 2021 mandating routine inspections is already in effect, but owners of the city’s aging supply of parking structures — in addition to facing increased insurance costs — are about to be subject to increased scrutiny and expensive upgrades. City officials have already identified dozens of garages with dangerous defects and ordered seven to vacate immediately. 

“My first thought was, I hope no one was hurt. And then, here comes the Building Department, cracking down on all the garages throughout the city,” said Gustavo Rusconi, vice president at Argo Real Estate, which owns several city buildings with parking garages. “Here come the violations and fines.” The parking garage…

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