🏷️Retail occupancy best ever; Texans love their Tito's🍸

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Significant stat: During 2023, D-FW’s retail market experienced the highest occupancy rate in more than 40 years, according to real estate firm Weitzman. The year ended with a record-high occupancy rate of 95.2%, 1.8 million square feet of space absorbed, and more than 1 million square feet of new construction.

In Terminal A at D-FW International Airport is a ... Toys R Us, the first in a U.S. airport. The store sells toys, crafts, games and plush toys. And to welcome shoppers is a life-size Geoffrey the Giraffe 3D sculpture.

Marshall Grain Co., which closed a 70-year-old store on East Lancaster in Fort Worth in 2016, is moving its Grapevine store, which closed last June, to 5311 Colleyville Blvd. on March 1. Colleyville allotted $50,000 to help with store improvements.

Housing report (December 2023): The year ended with average home prices in Fort Worth at $325,495, a 4.3% decrease year over year. Tarrant County’s median home price was $337,990, down from December of 2022 by 3.4%. Fort Worth inventory was at 2.3 months, which decreased from 2.7 months in November, but was up slightly year over year. Tarrant County’s inventory was also at 2.3 months, up from 2 months year over year. The Texas Real Estate Research Center states that 6.5 months of inventory represents a balanced market.

Spectrum Enterprise has a deal to provide technology solutions to help expand Heritage Grocers Group, a specialty Hispanic and ethnic food retailer. Heritage Grocers Group operates 114 grocery stores, including 29 El Rancho Supermercados it recently purchased. Four are in Tarrant County.

Officials in the Fort Worth, Arlington, Crowley, Keller, Hurst-Euless-Bedford and Northwest independent school districts confirmed they didn’t have sensitive information disclosed during a leak of four million records by Raptor Technologies. Included in the leak were incident response plans and campus evacuation routes. The company made the files inaccessible after a security researcher reported the leak last month.

Fort Worth's Eastside Transportation Plan, whose objective is to enhance safety, multi-modal connectivity and support economic development, is pivoting with its "red route," the most populous in the system.

Bar banter for $2.5 billion: What Austin-based Tito’s Vodka sold in retail dollars, making it the highest-selling, dollar-producing brand in America. The top volume seller was High Noon hard seltzers. The pre-made vodka + juice cocktail sold 21.4 million cases in 2023, which was $1.5 billion in sales.

Keeping up with the Joneses: What are HENRYs, and what’s the matter with them? HENRY stands for “high earner, not rich yet” and describes people who make a lot of money, but haven’t saved up much, spending their salaries on things such as servicing debt or housing. A recent Edelman Financial Engines survey of American millionaires found that many are HENRYs — only 8% consider themselves wealthy and 31% say they are middle class.

Fortune analyzed 13,000 workers and two years of performance reviews and found low-quality feedback is why employees flee companies. According to the survey, 61% of respondents who plan to stay within their organization say they understand what their manager expects; among people planning to leave their organizations, only 21% feel that way.

Hands on the wheel, not your meal: It’s no joke, the federal government is banning humorous electronic messages on highways. It's part of the changes outlined in a new 1,100-page U.S. Federal Highway Administration manual. Give us a brake break. 

Some wheel-y bad drivers: LendingTree compiled accident data to find out which car brands get into the most accidents, which brands have the most drivers getting DUIs, etc. Ram, Tesla and Subaru have the worst drivers, while BMW drivers have the highest DUI rates.

Camaro, one of just a few muscle cars still available, has finished production for the 2024 model and has been retired. Launched in the U.S. in 1967, it squared off against other American muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger, both models reportedly set for generation upgrades next year, with all-electric models possible. Camaro was retired once before. 

Bye-bye basic: Consumers who got a taste of higher-end amenities during the last couple years’ travel boom aren’t too keen to go back to basic economy, and the travel industry doesn’t want them to. Travel advisers say many customers are more inclined to treat themselves to experiences they may have dismissed a few years ago.

People on the move:

• Crescent Real Estate: Promotes Christopher Goff to Senior Vice President, Capital Formation

• SketchDeck: Hires Bryan Townsend as Head of Digital Services 

• Elite Title Co.: Launched by Amber and Jeremy Dean

• Root Engineering Services: Hires Lydia Donnell as VP - Business Development

• Texas Women's Foundation: Adds Lisa de la Garza as Senior VP - Grants and Programs

• Omnicell: Adds Eileen Voynick to Board of Directors

Snippets:

• A small North Carolina town doesn't want a Buc-ee's? What are they thinking (or drinking)?

• The best and worst states to raise a family. Spoiler alert: Texas came in No. 28.

• Worth the read: Author Morgan Housel explains how world-class performers think differently than the average person in his book Same As Ever.

Last issue poll results: Have you experienced a noticeable increase in your home/auto insurance rates for 2024? (Yes 92%, No 8%)