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Valence announced it wants to build a battery manufacturing facility in Leander.  The proposed facility will be more than 1.5 million square feet and will employ about 4,000 people. 

The implications of this project on the psychology of business in central Texas and alternative energy is huge.  This will enable Central Texas to move to the next level of economic evolution.

it's the evolution of green and alternative energy at the highest level.  It's lightweight batteries powering heavy machines, making these machines lighter yet still powerful.  It's a jump int future technology for Segways, golf carts and even automobiles and double decker buses.

Ross Goolsby, the Valence CFO says, " We're about two or three years away from seeing automobiles powered by our battery everyday on the road here in the United States".  "This year we may see a few Fed Ex trucks in New York that are powered by these batteries.

Valence has submitted a grant application to the U.S. Department of Energy under the Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative.  The facility would cost nearly $600 million.

The batteries are lithium iron magnesium phosphate batteries (LiFeMgPO4), which is the power of lithium combined with the safety of phosphate.  Valence develops and manufactures advanced LiFeMgPO4 materials, designs and manufactures programmable lithium iron magnesium phosphate packs and provides application engineering integration services.

Valence currently has a manufacturing facility in China that produces batteries worldwide for Segways used for civil service in Italy and double decker buses in London.  The company is also in the core market segments for energy storage solutions for motive, stationary, industrial and military uses.

The 20 year old company is headquartered in Austin.

Remember............

Buying or Selling a Home?

I Want to Help!!!

Heather Brown

RE/MAX Austin Skyline

512-751-2931

www.HeatherBrown.com

All 3 Leander ISD High Schools made the cut in Newsweek Magazine's top 1,537 High Schools in America.  Cedar Park High School earned a ranking of 697, charting the highest in the Leander Independent School District.  Vista Ridge was ranked no. 1,335 and Leander High was No. 1,447.  All public schools are ranked according to a ratio which calculates the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors.  All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000 and are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way.

Heather Knows Cedar Park!!!

Officials with the brand new Cedar Park Center announced that Academy of Country Music Artist of the Decade and Grammy award winning Country Music Artist George Strait will headline their opening event on September 25, 2009. This promises to be the first of many memorable occasions at the new Cedar park Center.

Opening this state of the art facility with an artist of this magnitude demonstrates the Center's commitment to bring the best entertainment in the world to the Greater Austin Area.

Tickets went on sale at 10:00 am, June 20th at all Ticketmaster outlets at 1-800-745-3000 or online at www.cedarparkcenter.com

Cedar Park Center is located at the intersection of New Hope Drive and Toll Road 183A, north of Austin, Cedar Park Center will be a multi-use facility, with 6,800 seats available for hockey and 8,700 seats for concerts and other events.  The Center will have 24 suites (including 4 party suites) and 545 club seats with a private club lounge.  A retail site of 17 acres is adjacent to the facility grounds for mixed use development that will include 91,000 square feet for retail and 91,000 square feet for commercial, developed by Hicks Cedar Park, LLC.

Remember............

Buying or Selling a Home?

I Want to Help!!!

Heather Brown

RE/MAX Austin Skyline

512-751-2931

www.HeatherBrown.com

Austin Ranks #1 on Forbes Best Cities for Recession Recovery!  According to the Forbes Article; the three most important things in real estate: Location, Location, Location.  It's true for recovery from a real estate bubble too.   Overall, many economists expect the national economy to return to growth later in 2009, perhaps as soon as this summer.  But that won't be the case everywhere.  While some cities are poised for a quick rebound, others face a slow recovery that could take years. 

Poised for swift recovery are many Texas cities such as Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and McAllen.  These areas did not see the massive real estate bubble that formed in states like California, Nevada and Florida.  The economy is diverse, with heavy growth coming from education and health care in recent years. 

Many of the cities with the longest road to recovery are California cities, where home prices rocketed out of control, and entire economies were supported largely by a real estate bubble.  Many California cities saw home prices soar to unsustainable levels and then begin their inevitable plunge.  The collapse of the housing markets pushed unemployment rates in these cities above 10%.  Even as a flood of foreclosures makes home prices look affordable again, a sign that some of the worst real estate markets may be finding their bottom, it will still take years for unemployment rates as high as 16.8% in Modesto or 15.5% in Fresno to return to healthy levels.

To find the 10 cities that looked best poised for recovery (and the 10 cities likely looking at the slowest recovery), Forbes examined estimates from data provider Moody's Economy.com of the projected gross domestic product of metropolitan areas across the U.S, as well as unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and home prices, incomes and affordability data from the National Association of Home Builders.  Because, in general, healthy cities were not victims of as severe a housing collapse, home prices were not used in ranking the cities poised for recovery. 

Ranked #1  Austin-Round Rock, Texas

Current GDP: $72.4 Billion

End of 2010:  $77.7 Billion (projected)

Unemployment: 5.8%

From now to the end of 2010, the economy of Austin is projected to grow by $5 billion, and unemployment has stayed relatively subdued.  The city's diverse economy, home to Dell, the University of Texas and the Texas state government, has kept the economy strong.  Forbes.com also recently ranked Austin the Best Big City for Jobs. 

#2 on the list was Fayetteville - Springdale-Rogers, Ark.

Current GDP: $13.9 Billion

End of 2010: $14.5 Billion (projected)

Unemployment: 5%

#3 Boulder, Colo.

Current GDP: $15.6 Billion

End of 2010:  $16.3 Billion (projected)

Unemployment 5.7%

#4 Huntsville, Ala.

Current GDP: $16.1 Billion

End of 2010: $17.2 Billion (projected)

Unemployment: 6.1%

#5  San Antonio, Texas

Current GDP:  $66.3 Billion

End of 2010:  $68.4 Billion (projected)

Unemployment: 5.4%

Austin is a Great Place to Be!!! 

Remember............

Buying or Selling a Home?

I Want to Help!!!

Heather Brown

RE/MAX Austin Skyline

512-751-2931

www.HeatherBrown.com