Future of oil-and-gas industry in Texas is uncertain, economist says

Since the recent drop in oil prices from $100 per barrel to around $50 per barrel, predictions about where prices are going have been all over the board. Estimates have been as low as $20 per barrel and as high as $200 per barrel. That’s quite a wide range. What’s interesting is that until the recent plunge in prices, it had become quite fashionable to claim that oil prices would never fall below $100 per barrel.

Now in some quarters, there is talk that oil may never reach $100 per barrel again.…

Historic downtown Raleigh apartments to be upgraded following $6M property sale

A Chapel Hill real estate investment group has bought the historic 55-unit Boylan Apartments campus at the corner of Hillsborough Street and Boylan Avenue, near downtown Raleigh, with plans to upgrade all of the units with modern interior finishes.

An affiliate of Blue Heron Asset Management LLC, a real estate investment fund led by Chapel Hill developer Ron Strom, has paid $6.3 million for the three, closely clustered three-story apartment buildings, according to county records.

The seller was…

Digital security firm located in San Francisco, London … and now Shawnee

RiskIQ, a San Francisco-based digital security firm, will open its third location in Shawnee, where it will add 25 high-paying jobs over the next two years.

The firm, which currently has offices in San Francisco and London, will open a customer success operations center along Kansas Highway 7 at 7740 Hedge Lane in western Shawnee.

The Shawnee City Council recently approved a forgivable $80,800 loan for the company through the Shawnee Entrepreneurial and Economic Development, or SEED, Fund. The…

What landmark status may do for Georgetown's West Heating Plant

A staff report from the D.C. Historic Preservation Office is recommending the West Heating Plant in Georgetown be designated a historic landmark, a step that could complicate efforts to redevelop the World War II-era industrial plant into high-end Four Seasons condos.

Staff planner Tim Dennee argued the plant at 1051-1055 29th St. NW should be added to the federal National Register of Historic Places, saying it is a “significant and distinguishable entity” despite being “merely” a heating plant.…

KC's newest CEO: Hunt Midwest's Ora Reynolds

Ora Reynolds, president of Hunt Midwest Enterprises, now holds the title of CEO, as well.

The promotion was announced Monday by Lee Derrough, chairman of the commercial real estate development firm.

“Ora has earned this distinction based on her outstanding performance as the leader of Hunt Midwest,” Derrough said in a release.

Derrough credits Reynolds with increasing and diversifying the company’s development business, leading Hunt Midwest to record profits in 2014.

Reynolds said that working…