AT&T is moving its global headquarters to Plano, a blow to efforts by Dallas city leaders to keep the telecommunications giant’s main campus downtown.
Dallas-based AT&T preferred a “horizontal, suburban-style” headquarters campus with “significant acreage” Mayor Eric Johnson and city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said in statements released Monday morning soon after news broke that AT&T, an anchor tenant for Downtown Dallas, would build a new global headquarters at a 54-acre site in Plano.
“Our city’s unique economic strengths are what attracted AT&T to our urban core in 2008, and Dallas has become a global economic powerhouse since then,” Johnson said. “But as we worked to retain AT&T, it became clear that its current leaders preferred a large horizontal, suburban-style campus rather than the skyscrapers that define our city center.”
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Tolbert echoed that sentiment, noting that AT&T desired “significant acreage for development.”
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“AT&T’s transition will be gradual, and the company will remain part of our city’s fabric in the years ahead,” she said.
AT&T spent several months searching for new office space with a focus on the northern suburbs, despite recent investments into its Akard Street headquarters. The company poured $100 million into the food and entertainment-focused Discovery District, which opened in 2021 and quickly became a hotspot downtown.
In early 2025, a study conducted for Downtown Dallas Inc. by Boston Consulting Group warned that AT&T would consider leaving its downtown headquarters if public safety issues like crime and homelessness were not addressed. Downtown Dallas Inc. estimated that AT&T’s relocation could cause a 30% plunge in downtown property values.
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Johnson and Tolbert both emphasized the efforts the city made to address such concerns in order to keep businesses downtown.
“Dallas is a great city for business, and we have worked tirelessly, strategically, and collaboratively to keep the company in our city limits,” said Tolbert. “Business leaders have praised our successes in our urban core, which include expanded police presence and our remarkable success relocating people experiencing homelessness.”
“In recent years, we have worked together to cut violent crime, homelessness, property tax rates, and bureaucratic red tape,” Johnson said.
It is unclear what will happen with regard to AT&T and downtown Dallas. Its lease at the 37-story Whitacre Tower expires in 2030, and nearly 6,000 workers were assigned to the building as of 2022.
AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a statement that the company is targeting 2028 for partial occupancy of its new Plano complex.
While companies have moved en masse to the wider Dallas-Fort Worth area, Downtown Dallas has not been a major beneficiary of those moves.
However, as the region has grown into a finance hub, several banks and financial institutions have invested in the urban core. Though primarily in Victory Park and Uptown, Johnson cited these developments as reasons to be optimistic about Dallas’ future.
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“Dallas is a city of opportunity for workers, families, and businesses of all sizes. … We have added $27 billion in new development since 2019 and have more on the way, such as the exciting new Goldman Sachs’ campus and our fast-growing ‘Y’all Street’ financial sector,” Johnson said.
“The future of our city — and of our urban core — is bright, and this departure ultimately will open the door for us to explore new possibilities,“ he continued.
“Dallas is a city defined by its resilience and ability to attract new opportunities, and I look forward to working with Mayor Johnson, the Dallas City Council, our city staff, our partners, and our business leaders as we continue to shape the future of our urban core,” Tolbert said.
AT&T to build global headquarters in Plano, leaving Downtown Dallas campus in limbo
The Fortune 500 company had been weighing its future in Dallas, where it spent $100 million on a sprawling Discovery District.
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