A $9.4 billion network of long-distance power lines will be built across the eastern swath of Texas to create a new “superhighway” for the state’s power grid, after state officials voted unanimously to approve the plan this week.
By Billy Wadsack, Dallas-Fort Worth
In addition to professional hockey, the Dallas Stars’ planned $3B sports and entertainment district in Plano will bring an injection of new trophy office space to a city that hasn’t had any Class-A deliveries since 2024.
Dallas-Fort Worth leads the U.S. in corporate relocations, and the influx of up to 2M SF of new office space from the redevelopment project is expected to help Plano land a bigger share of those moving companies, according to its director of economic development, Michael Talley. The city’s new development pipeline has been dry for years as Plano has been focused on its stable of existing corporate campuses ready for redevelopment.
The Stars’ 90-acre mixed-use district at the site of The Shops at Willow Bend mall will increase the city’s Class-A office supply by more than 7% and bring two hotels, nearly 1,000 residential units and more than 200K SF of retail, restaurants and entertainment options, the project’s developers said.
By Justin Sayers – Senior Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal
Elon Musk has roughly tripled his land holdings in Bastrop County.
Entities tied to Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. since May have purchased more than 1,360 acres there, according to an Austin Business Journal review of Bastrop County property records. Most of the new acreage is on the other side of Farm to Market Road 969, opposite of where his current projects are housed.
Those entities in recent months made seven purchases, the latest of which was logged in June. They push the total amount of Musk’s direct land holdings in the county east of Austin to about 2,000 acres. Musk was previously directly tied to roughly 700 acres, according to an ABJ review of property records, although he publicly indicated in June he had 1,000 acres owned or under contract.
North Texas is set to reach a population of 9 million people over the next year.
That’s according to new data released last week by the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG).
“It is a positive that people are moving here and I think that it really says that our area has something going for it,” said Sarah Jackson, an analyst with NCTCOG.
The data shows the region is currently home to 8,952,590 people as of January 1, 2026. The county with the largest growth is Collin, which added about 64,700 new residents.
Lowry Crossing in Collin County was the fastest growing city, according to the data. The suburb east of McKinney grew by a little more than 45%.
“Cities like McKinney and Plano and those in that area, they still have tons of room to grow, but it might be getting more expensive in those more populated areas,” Jackson said.
By TPR Staff
Texans will soon have a major new place to experience the rugged beauty of the Hill Country — just about 150 miles west of San Antonio.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has acquired nearly 54,000 acres in Edwards and Kinney counties for what will become Silver Lake State Park. The land sits between Rocksprings and Uvalde and includes steep canyons, limestone cliffs, rolling hills, miles of West Nueces River frontage and a 30-acre spring-fed lake.
Once developed, Silver Lake State Park will be the second-largest state park in Texas, behind only Big Bend Ranch State Park. State officials said the acquisition will help protect a significant stretch of Hill Country landscape and open it to the public for generations.
By Elena Bou, Contributor
What comes to mind when you think of Texas? Friday night football under floodlights, wide horizons, brisket and country music – a fierce sense of independence. But also oil derricks against a burnt-orange sky and refineries lining the Gulf Coast.
Energy abundance is woven deep into the state’s identity. What is changing now is how that abundance is being produced. Texas is building one of the largest new energy systems in the Western world – not because it turned politically green, but because market forces are making clean energy the fastest and most scalable way to meet surging demand.
This shift is economic, not ideological.
By Sarah Grunau
A newly proposed Harris County flood zone map adds heightened flood risks for households across the Houston area.
A draft of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new and long-awaited flood risk map will likely go through several variations before final approval. The map — which was quietly released on the agency’s website two weeks ago and intended for technical reviews by floodplain administrators — marks a major revision in Harris County’s flood risk zones that haven’t seen a comprehensive update in nearly 20 years.
Under the proposed map — which will influence insurance coverages as well as local development rules — the 100-year and 500-year floodplains widely expanded in south Houston, while some areas in southwest Houston saw a reduced flood risk. Both floodplains appeared to spread in northeast Harris County near Lake Houston under the proposal.
Jim Blackburn, an environmental law professor at Rice University, said that a reevaluation of rainfall rates is one of the most significant developments since the county’s previous flood maps were released in 2007. The federal agency’s newly proposed map reflects about a 30% increase in rainfall rates.
By , Staff Writer
The project, made up of more than 1,100 miles of power lines and transmission towers, would cut through the Houston area, though exact routes haven’t been determined yet.
Once completed in the early 2030s, the 765-kilovolt power lines would be able to carry more than twice as much electricity as the existing 345-kilovolt power lines across the state.
This new “superhighway” is needed so that the state’s power grid can keep the lights on amid an expected boom in electricity demand in the coming years, said Kristi Hobbs, vice president of system planning for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
ERCOT manages the power grid that serves most of the state’s electricity demand. By 2031, that demand could increase more than 70%, according to ERCOT’s forecasts, primarily because of electrification in the oil and gas industry and an influx of data centers powering artificial intelligence technologies.
“We realized we could not keep planning the system the way we always had,” Hobbs told ERCOT’s board during the grid operator’s quarterly meeting this week.
By Janet Miranda – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Seventeen years after Hurricane Ike devastated Galveston, the region’s long-anticipated storm barrier — known as the “Ike Dike” — has achieved a significant milestone.
The Gulf Coast Protection District recently approved two major engineering design contracts, advancing the largest coastal protection initiative in the U.S. Dallas-based Jacobs (NYSE: J) secured the contract for designing the Bolivar Roads Gate System, also known as “The Gate,” which will span the 2-mile-wide waterway separating Galveston Island from Bolivar Peninsula.
Omaha-based HDR Inc. will design the Bolivar and West Galveston Beach and Dune System, a project focused on restoring vital coastal ecosystems and reinforcing natural barriers in the region.
Spanning from Galveston Bay to South Padre Island, the project represents a comprehensive risk-management strategy for Texas’s coastline. It employs multiple lines of defense to reduce storm surge threats and restore damaged coastal ecosystems.
“Everyone’s been waiting to see some progress on this project,” said Heather Betancourth, the Gulf Coast Protection District’s communications director. “We can’t get to construction without moving those two features in design, so it’s really the first step to kind of realize the bigger portion of this project.”
By TPR Staff
Texas is once again in the middle of a major transportation conversation, and this time the discussion centers on whether the state could see two entirely new interstate corridors built over the next several decades. While Texans are familiar with continuous population growth and the resulting strain on transportation networks, the scale of the projects under consideration is unusually large. Between the federally authorized I-14 System and the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) new study on converting US 287 into an interstate, Texas could be looking at some of the most significant highway developments since the original Interstate Highway System.
These proposals come at a time when Texans are increasingly aware of the rising cost of infrastructure, the limits of government funding, and the long-term financial obligations tied to mega-projects that unfold over decades. The promise of new interstates often sounds appealing, but the reality involves federal designation hurdles, environmental reviews, land acquisition, and enormous construction costs that taxpayers ultimately bear. Understanding these projects requires comparing the benefits they offer with the concerns raised by both residents and fiscal watchdogs.
What follows is a comprehensive look at the I-14 System’s progress and the future of US 287 as a potential interstate, drawing from TxDOT’s official planning documents, public engagement summaries, and statewide projections.
By Naomi Klinge – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
A joint venture of midstream companies reached a final investment decision on a new natural gas pipeline from the Permian Basin to Katy.
The Matterhorn joint venture involves Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Oneok Inc. (NYSE: OKE), Austin-based WhiteWater, Ohio-based MPLX LP (NYSE: MPLX) and Canada-based Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB), which has its U.S. headquarters in Houston.
The joint venture is developing the new 450-mile Eiger Express Pipeline, which is designed to transport up to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the Permian Basin to Katy and will hold reserved capacity for deliveries to the Corpus Christi market.
The Matterhorn joint venture owns 70% of the Eiger Express Pipeline, while both Oneok and MPLX also own additional 15% stakes separate from the JV. Combined with their stakes in the JV, Oneok and MPLX own 25.5% and 22%, respectively, of the new pipeline.