I’m very pleased to report that this past week, the State Bank of Texas acquired the National Bank of Chicago. This acquisition now positions the State Bank of Texas as the largest Indian-American-owned bank in the United States! Additional details:

After over a year of information gathering and public hearings, the Texas State Securities Board has approved a set of regulations to govern equity crowdfunding. Given that the board voted 4-0 in favor of these changes, it appears that there is strong support for these changes. Crowdfunding has been in the news since Indiegogo launched in 2008, followed by  Kickstarter in 2009, but has primarily been seen as a way to fund artistic endeavors or technology products without the need […]

Dallas is already home to over 70,000 hotel rooms. Houston boasts over 66,000, and Austin weighs in with another 30,000. And the draw of those three cities for conventions, sporting events and business shows no sign of slowing. Add San Antonio to the mix, with the River Walk and SeaWorld, and Texas is a well-supplied perpetual tourist mecca.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the Urban Land Institute have released their annual survey of the most attractive cities for buying and investing in real estate. Texas nabbed three of the top five spots, with Houston and Austin eclipsing long-time powerhouse San Francisco. Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth completed the top of the list.

The Dallas Business Journal reports that Woods Capital has signed deals totaling more than a half-a-million-square-feet since the real estate investment firm bought the 50-story skyscraper downtown in July of 2013, partly because of a major renovation. “The leasing activity at Thanksgiving Tower to date is an endorsement of the tower’s quality as well as the excitement each of these tenants shares for the pending building renovations and the accelerating gentrification of downtown.” ~ Woods Capital CEO Jonas Woods, in […]

Sageworks has declared State Bank of Texas to be the top community bank out of 4,566 community banks throughout the entire United States with an ROAA (Return On Average Assets) of 5.1% and an ER (Efficiency Ratio) of 24.4%!

The recent report by the Commercial Real Estate Development Association depicts a positive outlook for commercial real estate development throughout the United States, and for Texas in particular. According to the report, the commercial realty industry is growing at the quickest pace since 2011, with the figures projected to continue rising through 2015 at the very least. New construction expenditures in industrial, warehouse, office, and retail spaces posted increases in 2013, and the State of Texas is leading the pack […]

In June 2013, Greg Williams, national leader of KPMG LLP’s real estate division, predicted North Texas would be a major target for real estate investors due to the projected growth in the area. Almost a year later, that prediction seems to have been prophetic. According to Marcus & Millichap’s 2014 Annual Report, the multifamily market has shown a 40 percent increase in transaction velocity. The Q4 2013 report compiled by CBRE showed a 92% occupancy rate for existing multifamily units […]

The economic health of an area or a state can be difficult to evaluate accurately, but you can get a good idea by looking at a couple of factors: new businesses, or businesses that relocate to an area, and tourism. By both standards, Texas seems to be doing well. In recent years, dozens of companies have moved out of California, and many found new homes in Texas – partly because Texas is a no-state-income-tax state, and partly because of economic […]

In an April article, “Chan Patel turned to other motel owners to start State Bank of Texas“, Asian Hospitality journal reports how Chan Patel founded the State Bank of Texas in the 1980s with only $2 Million in capital, and then steadily built upon that to show $90 million in equity capital and total assets of $432 million now. The bank is particularly successful with commercial real estate (“CRE”) loans — so much so that the FDIC allows it to […]