Southwest Airlines, Varidesk, Forty Times Ten: Tuesday's Buisness Briefing

Your lunchtime look at D-FW business [Your lunchtime look at D-FW business] February 06,  2018 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here](. Follow us on Twitter [@DMNBiz](. A Southwest Airlines airplane taxis past other Southwest Airlines airplanes at Love Field Airport in Dallas, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer) The Big Story Southwest accused of trying to steal $25K donated to wrongly fired mechanic When Ken Hackett was fired from his mechanic job with Southwest Airlines in February 2017, his fellow employees passed the hat to help him get by, eventually raising $25,000 through the crowdfunding website GoFundMe. Nearly a year later, Hackett was reinstated to his job after an arbitrator ruled he’d been unjustly fired. [Southwest was ordered to cover Hackett’s back pay, minus any income he’d earned from other sources during the time he was fired](. In the eyes of Southwest, that income includes the $25,000 raised for Hackett by his coworkers, according to a letter sent by Hackett’s union on Friday that accuses the Dallas-based airline of trying to deduct that amount from his back pay. In a statement Monday, Southwest said it is following “customary procedures” when calculating the amount owed to an employee who has been reinstated. -[Conor Shine]( Plus: [Find more on chief regional airlines Southwest and American]( SUBSCRIBE NOW [Get unlimited digital access for $2.99 per week]( The Latest - Banking: [Daniel Cook III](, former Goldman Sachs general partner in Dallas, dies at 83. - Technology: [Lockheed]( could land $10.7B for Fort Worth-made F-35s under defense plan. - Energy: [Texas Tech alums]( back in Permian Basin with new $1 billion venture. - Transportation: Dallas cracks top 10 -- on list of most [traffic-challenged cities](. - Marketing: No, that Super Bowl ad with MLK wasn't made by [Dodge's Austin ad agency](. Advertisement High school seniors Shelby Stansbury, 17, left, and Sarah Kate Farmer, 18, use standing desks during an AP psychology class at Episcopal School of Dallas. They say the desks help them concentrate during class. (Jae S. Lee/The Dallas Morning News) Technology Varidesk hopes to elevate the student experience with standing desks in schools Standing desks made by Varidesk have become a staple in the offices of Fortune 500 companies. Now, the Coppell-based company wants to expand from the cubicle and corner office into the classroom. Varidesk announced Tuesday that it's acquired Stand2Learn, which specializes in standing desks for kids. Stand2Learn was co-founded by Mark Benden, a public health professor at Texas A&M University who studies ways to boost activity and fight obesity in workplaces and classrooms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. [Varidesk CEO Jason McCann said he sees schools as a natural place to grow.Â](The father of three said he's concerned about kids’ health, especially as many spend less time at recess and in physical education and more in front of a screen. Standing desks could help make classrooms more active and collaborative places, much as they have workplaces. -[Melissa Repko]( Also: [Are standing desks in the office of the future? This company thinks so]( Plus: [Find more on technology and its effect on North Texas]( Elsewhere in Texas - Real estate: East Side residents in San Antonio still oppose [The Bridge apartment complex]( despite its changes. (San Antonio Express-News) - Jobs: Houston lawyer says goodbye to Baker Botts and hello to [Hogan Lovells](. (Houston Chronicle) - Grocers: Under Amazon, what does the future hold for [Whole Foods’ 365 brand stores](? (512Tech.com) - Energy: San Antonio’s [CPS Energy](votes to send board candidate to city. (San Antonio Rxpress-News) - Technology: A slump in smartphone sales hits Austin’s [Cirrus Logic]( as its shares tumble. (512Tech.com) Neiman Marcus plans to build at 190,000-square-foot, three-level store at the top of The Shops at Hudson Yards. Neiman Marcus will occupy levels 5-7 in the vertical mall that is scheduled to open in 2019. (Rendering/Courtesy of Related Companies) Retail Dallas luxury joins NYC's Hudson Yards, with Forty Five Ten, Neiman Marcus Dallas luxury will be fully represented next year when Manhattan's Hudson Yards opens its shopping district next year [Dallas-based luxury retailer Forty Five Ten said Tuesday it will open a 16,000-square-foot store in March 2019,]( adding to the retailer's rapid growth since it was acquired by Joule Hotel developer Headington Companies in 2014. Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, is building a huge 18-milion-square-foot mostly office and residential project that it says is transforming the West Side of Manhattan. Neiman Marcus' 190,000-square-foot store is anchoring the building and will occupy levels 5,6 and 7 of the vertical mall. -[Maria Halkias]( Plus: [Find more on D-FW retail]( Dallas-area home prices were 6.9 percent higher in December than a year earlier. (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer) real estate Dallas-area home price growth outpaced U.S. gains in December Dallas-area home prices were 6.9 percent higher at the end of 2017 compared with a year earlier, according to a new report by CoreLogic. [Dallas' year-over-year home price gain was slightly ahead of the 6.6 percent nationwide price increase from December 2016.]( "Home prices continue to rise as a result of aggressive monetary policy, the economic and jobs recovery and a lack of housing stock," Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in the report. "The largest price gains during 2017 were in five Western states: California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Washington. At the end of 2017, some of the biggest annual home price increases were in Las Vegas (up 11.2 percent), San Francisco (10.1 percent) and Denver (8.1 percent). -[Steve Brown]( And: [Billingsley Co. plans major addition to Plano office park]( Also: [New warehouse project on the way on I-45 in southern Dallas County]( Plus: [Find more on D-FW real estate]( Onboarding Who is getting hired and promoted - COMERICA INC. named Mauricio Ortiz senior vice president and chief accounting officer. - CRESCENT REAL ESTATE LLC promoted Andrew Lombardi to senior vice president, general counsel. - GIBSON DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP promoted Olivia Adendorff and Jonathan Whalen to partner in the Dallas office. - HIGHLAND CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LP named Laurie Whetstone managing director and Kieran Brennan director. - MUNCK WILSON MANDALA named Neil Ferrari partner. Plus: [Find more executive changes]( Follow DFW stocks: [See how top North Texas stocks performed](, as well as the oil and gas markets and major stock exchanges. DFW Top 100 Places to Work 2017: The Dallas Morning News and Workplace Dynamics partner each year to feature the [Top 100 workplaces](, based on ratings by the people who work at them. Advertisement 👋  That's all for today! For up-to-the-minute business news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com/Business](. 💖 Share the love: If you like this newsletter, please forward this email to a friend and [check out our other newsletters here](. 📧 Do you have feedback on this newsletter? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to our Business Editor Paul O'Donnell at [podonnell@dallasnews.com](mailto:podonnell@dallasnews.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback). 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