Y’all Street has a certain ex-President to thank for its latest entrant.
On Wednesday, Canadian banking giant Scotiabank cut the ribbon on its new regional hub in Victory Park.
The third-largest bank in Canada and one of the 50 largest in the world, Scotiabank will eventually take up three floors of Victory Commons One for more than 1,000 workers. According to the building’s developer, Ross Perot Jr., former President George W. Bush closed the deal.
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Seeking to better connect its primary markets of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, the bank, which has its American head office in New York, eyed expansion south.
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The decision eventually came down to Dallas or Charlotte, and during the selection process Perot’s real estate firm Hillwood hosted the Scotiabank team for a dinner at the firm’s offices. The idea was floated to invite Bush — and sure enough, he came.
According to Perot, Bush asked Scotiabank president and CEO Scott Thomson where they were looking, to which Thomson replied, “Some other cities.”
“And Bush goes, ‘Come on, you can’t be serious,’ and Scott goes, ‘Well, yeah, you’re right,’” Perot said.
Between a dinner with Bush, meetings with Governor Greg Abbott, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson — and a who’s who of business folks in North Texas — the city rolled out the red carpet to nab Scotiabank, and it made a difference.
Co-CEO for the U.S. Nicole Frew said that the thing that struck Scotiabank about Dallas was how “welcomed we felt.” Not just by the people whose job it is to advocate for the city, like the Dallas Regional Chamber and the Economic Development Corporation, but also private entities and peers.
“I remember thinking, that’s interesting that they would want to come and talk to us. In theory, we’re competing with them,” Frew told media on Wednesday.
“And what I think I took from that experience was the sense of civic responsibility here across the Dallas community, and that when Dallas grows, when Texas grows, everyone wins.”
Scotiabank’s new regional hub in Dallas is seen, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Dallas.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Other major factors, she said, were the momentum of the region — corporate relocations, capital formation, quality of living — and the depth and availability of talent.
She said Scotiabank intends to recruit from and work with the local universities. (“Mike from UT Dallas,” who just got hired, got a shoutout from the CEO). In Canada, many senior employees of the bank, like investment bankers and managing directors, started in Scotiabank’s co-op programs, and it wants to replicate that talent pipeline in Texas.
“Just taking talent from other banks [in North Texas], to me, that’s a zero-sum game for all of us,” said Frew’s co-CEO, Brian Lehman. “Having folks from the university system join us and our culture, that’s a way for it to be additive.”
Scotiabank’s total investment into Dallas will cost around $60 million; to make that happen, it received a hefty incentives package from the city and state: a $2.7 million economic development grant, 10-year city property tax break, and an $11 million Texas Enterprise Fund Grant.
Lehman said that while Scotiabank is “very appreciative” of the incentives, “That’s not the reason why we’re here.”
“I’ve watched … the growth [in Dallas] over the course of the last 30 years, and it’s been unlike anything else that I’ve witnessed in any other city,” he said. “It just all aligned to me. It wasn’t even close, just my words.”
Scotiabank will look to embed in the Dallas community, beginning with a $100,000 contribution to United Way Dallas as part of the bank’s 10-year, $500 million global commitment to building “economic resilience” in the locations it operates in. The funding will support the nonprofit’s Pathways to Work workforce readiness program.
“Dallas chose us just as much as we chose Dallas,” said Frew in her speech at the ribbon-cutting. “And we are honored to be a part of the next chapter of growth, one employee at a time, one client at a time, one relationship at a time.”
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