Smart move

Billion-dollar tech company secures prime East Austin real estate for new headquarters

The new office building sits one block east of I-35.

Rendering courtesy of Resideo

Smart-home technology provider Resideo Technologies Inc. — poised to become the largest public company based in Austin — has settled on an East Austin office building as its new home.

About 120 employees, including Resideo’s top executives, will work in nearly 28,000 square feet of office space at 901 E. Sixth St., a new five-story building that sits one block east of I-35, and is adjacent to popular bars, coffee shops, and restaurants. The space will house Resideo’s headquarters, a software development center, and an area dedicated to showcasing Resideo products.

Resideo revealed the location of the headquarters December 12. The company announced in October that it was moving its main office to the Texas capital from Minneapolis-St. Paul. While the main office technically has been in Minnesota, most of Resideo’s top executives are relocating here from Melville, New York, the headquarters of Resideo’s former parent company.

Mike Nefkens, president and CEO of Resideo, says the company initially considered about 10 cities for its headquarters, eventually narrowing the list to three finalists, including Austin. Nefkens says Resideo was looking for a city that would be easy to reach from its hubs in Minnesota and New York, but that was not on the East Coast or West Coast.

In the end, Nefkens says, Austin was the unanimous choice of Resideo executives involved in the site search. Among the factors they weighed were cost of living, transportation, access to tech talent, and even friendliness. “I think what really brought Austin over the edge for us was tech talent," Nefkens says. "That was important."

“Believe it or not, Austin took a little bit of a ding on cost of living," he adds, although in the final analysis, Austin “clearly came in as a winner.” Nefkens, who grew up in Houston and graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, says he’s already purchased a house in Austin. He’ll be moving here from the San Francisco Bay Area.

According to Nefkens, another factor was the continuing addition of flights at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, including routes to London and Frankfurt. “We’re really betting on Austin,” he adds. “We’re excited to see what kind of talent we’re going to be able to attract.”

Resideo says it’ll create nearly 100 new jobs here in software engineering, marketing, sales, finance, and HR. As of December 12, nine jobs in Austin were posted on Resideo’s website. The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce estimates Resideo will produce a $20 million economic impact each year in Austin.

Nefkens says the space his company is leasing in East Austin will accommodate about 200 employees. “We do want to grow [the headcount] over time,” he adds, “and we hope to be able to do that pretty quickly.”

Resideo expects to occupy its new home during the first half of 2019. Endeavor Real Estate Group, the Austin-based company behind North Austin’s Domain project, developed the East Austin building.

A news release offers this description of the new office space: “Combining warmth and character with a modern warehouse style, the building features bright, open workspaces, secure bike storage, large wrap-around balconies, and operable windows, offering sweeping views of downtown.”

With revenue of about $4.8 billion, Resideo will become the largest publicly traded company based in the city of Austin. Resideo, a recent spinoff of Morris Plains, New Jersey-based conglomerate Honeywell Technologies Inc., employs about 14,500 people around the world.

Resideo — the world’s No. 1 seller of home thermostats — will not, however, be the biggest publicly traded company in the Austin metro area. On December 28, shares of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies Inc. will begin trading once again on the New York Stock Exchange. Dell converted from a public company to a private company in 2013.

Gary Farmer, chairman of the Opportunity Austin economic development initiative, says Resideo’s move to Austin represents a “big win” for the region. Nefkens spoke December 12 at a luncheon hosted by Opportunity Austin.

“As the number one global distributor of security products and a leader in forward-looking technology, Resideo will feel right at home with our innovative tech culture,” Farmer says in the release. “With smart-home tech still in the early stages of adoption, the country will look to an Austin-based company to lead the way.”

transportation

Red Light

San Antonio leads Texas on ending horse-drawn carriage rides by 2030

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Horses will no longer pull carriages on the streets of downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio has pulled off something that the rest of Texas has yet to do, but it didn't come without some contentious conversations. City Council has unanimously voted (with one abstention) to phase out the use of horse-drawn carriages over the next five years. That means by January 1, 2030, there will be none on the streets at all; instead, there will be electric carriages.

These plans have been in the making since 2022 — if not always at the same level of intensity — when District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran wrote up some concerns about the horses' wellbeing. A special session at the end of October 2024 hinted to San Antonians that the end for this practice was neigh — sorry, nigh — and the final vote was made on December 12. In addition to accepting the plan, it extended its timeframe by two years.

The initial proposal included worries about the horses' exposure to traffic and pollution, as well how their presence might exacerbate those issues for the environment at large by slowing traffic. It also raised concerns about the effects of standing or walking on hard surfaces for too long, or spending time in extreme weather.

At the December 12 meeting, San Antonians gave impassioned speeches about animal welfare — both to call attention to the need for better conditions and to defend the reputations and jobs of current horse drivers — but it wasn't the first time the council heard from the public about the issue.

In a prior city survey, 50,476 respondents weighed in. Of those respondents, 51.98 percent said they liked the idea to "Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse drawn carriages completely." There were alternative solutions listed, but respondents were less drawn to them.

A cultural divide emerged in the data and continued in the December meeting: some people avoided the carriages because they worried about the treatment of the horses, while others enjoyed them because of their historical echoes and living legacy. Many speakers in favor of the plan used this to form their argument, raising questions about history versus progress.

More tangible objections to the plan hinged on the businesses — specifically five companies — and jobs that would be lost, which was the main factor behind extending the adjustment period.

Discussions about the particulars of the electric vehicles are still to come, as confirmed in the discussion near the end of the meeting. Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez addressed concerns about what would happen to the horses, mentioning the Brady Hunter Foundation as a future partner in finding them rescue homes.

Some council members also brought up rhetorical questions about animal exploitation by groups like Sea World, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, military and police forces, and even various groups in the Fiesta parade, although these did not come with a formal motion to pick the issues up.

This decision could have a ripple effect on other Texas cities. Dallas has recently considered a similar ban, but it appears to have stalled; Austin's attempts at a ban have been unsuccessful, but according to the Austin-American Statesman, only one operator is permitted to bring horses downtown. She declines to do so because the long hours are unfair to her and the horses. Houston does have horse-drawn carriages, and there seems to be little conversation about banning them.

Cities like Chicago and Salt Lake City have led the charge in the United States with some of the most prominent successful bans. Other cities around the world with bans include Brussels and Guadalajara, which both switched to electric models. Bans that have been around for years, like Guadalajara's and Prague's, still aren't out of the woods — people are still pushing back on the decision, so it sounds like San Antonio still has much work cut out for it.

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