Women Leading the Charge in East Austin Commercial Real Estate Development

East Austin is getting a fresh new landmark at the corner of East Seventh Street and Pedernales, and it’s not your typical development project. WORKBENCH, a four-story office, retail, and restaurant space, with staggering odds that 3 of 6 equity partners are women. The three powerhouse women and equity partners: Jennifer Seay of Art + Artisans, Shawna Sieck of Legacy Lighting, and DeLea Becker of Beck-Reit Commercial Real Estate are using the development to shine a light on women in commercial real estate. This isn’t just another East Austin commercial real estate project—it's a statement on the future of women in the industry.

Times are surely changing and there’s no place like Austin for retail. Driving across America, you may likely find some vacant retail strips or ghost towns with empty stores but definitely not in Austin! Austin is just the opposite of a typical US city, with a surprisingly lower retail vacancy since 2020. The capital of Texas now has the lowest retail vacancy rate for any city in the State of Texas and is also one of the lowest in the country.  Competition is fierce in major Retail Areas such as the Domain and other trendy shopping streets like South Congress, 2nd street Downtown, Burnet Rd, and East Austin. Properties command high rent and spaces have multiple businesses looking at each sight and competing with each other to be selected by the Landlord.

1980s Real Estate Crisis and Lessons Learned Tramml Crow memo. Our favorite one : “Avoid debt like the plague. The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt shrink thine own organization before its overhead drives thee into the grave”

Beck-Reit recently represented the Landlord in an East Austin office listing. It was under contract within a week. The following tips detail how we made it happen.

Are you considering a switch from Residential Real Estate Agent to Commercial Real Estate Agent? We are often asked this question, especially during an economic downturn. So our Founder DeLea Becker has compiled advice, tips, and tricks she has given out for over a decade to residential agents asking for transition advice.

Situated on the iconic South Congress Avenue is a great piece of family-owned, Austin history that’s been around since the 50’s. Formerly known as “Lockhart’s”, this property is now home to Meteor Coffee, and possibly a new home for your business or someone you know looking for a high visibility space with great opportunity for growth. 1815 SF Off/Retail For Lease.

The Massimo Group is the top Commercial Real Estate broker/agent coaching organization in the world! This year for the first time, the Massimo Group hosted their first live conference event that was open to the public. The convention had several CREi Summit List makers on panels and in attendance. #DominateCRE. Here are a few of DeLea Becker’s takeaways.

Bisnow is honoring Austin’s most influential trailblazers - Top-level women executives and industry powerhouses who influence the way commercial real estate is done in ATX. Read the article full of quotes by our Founder DeLea Becker : “Building The Plane While Flying It”: Women In Austin CRE Are Soaring

According to research by BiggerPockets, women represent less than 2% of commercial real estate investors. This figure is surprising given that more women own and manage their own businesses today than ever before. Commercial real estate is an asset class that offers tremendous potential for growth, especially when you consider the current market conditions. However, most women are not investing in commercial real estate for one main reason: lack of knowledge about how it works and how they can get started investing. But this isn't true for Women In Commercial Real Estate. For Women in our profession, investing is squarely in our Circle of Competence.

There is potential to create $1 trillion dollars of value for women in commercial real estate by 2025 if we start investing like men. It's a $3.5 trillion dollar industry, and it's the largest one in the world.

“I like money. I do, I like numbers, I like negotiating, I like the challenge of turning a no into a yes. I really do like money. I like knowing I have it, I grew up in a house where there was never enough. Raised by a single mom OnlyParent. Not going to sit here and tell you I only do what I do to take care of other people. Because it is OK to do it for ourselves. For how it makes us feel. Secure - yeah. Powerful - Absolutely. I am so glad that it is finally acceptable for women to talk about AMBITION openly. But don’t let money be a dirty word. We can like that too”

Learn why commercial landlords, tenants, and brokers nationwide are embracing Otso in every lease deal.