Leasing Commercial Real Estate in Austin

Austin is a beautiful city with great weather but when the South by Southwest Festival or SXSW hits; the entire city gets infused with fresh energy and a hopping nightlife. The annual film, art, interactive and music festival brings more than a million tourists to the city every spring and that means a huge economic boom to the city. The festival is one of the largest in the US with more than 2000 performers playing at more than a 100 different venues all over the city. During this period of time, nearly every business and Austin Commercial Real Estate business location in the city near music venues is heavily patronized by locals, tourists and performers with hotels and restaurants being booked solid.

For the locals and for businessmen: a wonderful local opportunity

Last year, the festival pumped more that $167 into the local economy with more than 286,200 attendees flocking to venues all over the city. The most attendance was noted for the interactive session where last year, Bruce Springsteen provided an interactive music history lesson for panting fans. Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell was quick to point out that the huge boost to the economy could result in wonderful economic opportunities for businesses who could lease commercial estate at prime locations before the event actually started. According to local estimates, tourists booked almost 50,000 hotel rooms and patronized cabs, buses, restaurants, hotels, laundries and a host of other local businesses resulting in a good income over the one month preceding the festival and a week after it too. Other businesses which benefited included liquor bars, wines sales, the local night life, and nearly every kind of consumer related business. Commercial ventures like advertising, professional promotional product companies, media planner, event planners, PR personnel, HR staff, press companies, professional coordinators etc were also in high demand to coordinate and host the range of performers who visited the city for the high-flying festival.

This year: a predicted 25% jump in the SXSW generated business?

This year’s festival is supposed to increase in revenue and local trade by as much as 25%. Local businesses have already started prepping for the trade by leasing and renting commercial trade venues close to performance sites and near hotels. Businesses that deal with any aspect of the consumer service can now rent homes or commercial locations to pull in business from the tourists who patronize the festival. Local officials are predicting a higher than normal demand this year for printing companies for booklets and music promotional events, for PR staff to deal with the huge range of musical events that have been planned, support staff companies that can provide volunteers and paid workers for a range of events, tech companies to back up music-related technical stuff etc.

Even during off-season, Austin is thronged by tourists who visit the city to visit the Pecan Street Festival, the Fun fun fun fest, the Austin Symphony, the sports events and the racing events. Apart from Austin Office Space    rentals, commercial service providers should also consider long term leasing of Austin Commercial Real Estate properties and warehouses all through the year to get a better rate on the rental lease. Austin bears a closer look, not just for the festival but for the overall financial and economic benefit of having a local branch of a company in the city.