As Plano celebrates securing AT&T’s headquarters from downtown Dallas and confirms discussions with the Dallas Stars about a potential new arena, the Collin County city is welcoming a new director to lead its historically successful economic development department.
Michael Talley succeeds Doug McDonald, who now serves as Plano’s deputy city manager.
Talley was previously the senior vice president of the McKinney Economic Development Corporation. Before that post, he served as economic development director for Denton County.
In Plano, he will lead economic development initiatives and Visit Plano, the city’s marketing arm, to attract investment, companies and tourism and support local businesses. The suburb has a long history of attracting large businesses, from Toyota Motor North America to JCPenney.
Breaking News
Related
Talley discussed AT&T, Plano’s relationship with Dallas and more with The Dallas Morning News.
What’s your vision for the economic development department in Plano?
Three weeks in, I’m really just getting the lay of the land, understanding the processes of how they go about putting deals together and incentives. From a high level, a lot of projects can look the same, but when you get into the details, they’re all very different on how we put deals together [in] every community. I really just want to keep the momentum going. Plano has had so much momentum in landing deals and landing great corporate headquarters and regional headquarters that have chosen the city. I want to keep that momentum going and see how we can expand our visibility to where more people look at Plano when they want to come to North Texas or Texas in general.
Plano just approved its largest incentive package in its history — $20 million in incentives and a lengthy property tax rebate — to bring AT&T to the city. What does it mean for Plano?
It’s huge. AT&T is huge… [it is] bringing 10,000 jobs to the community, and really keeping them in the region as well. They could certainly have said, ‘we want to get up and move to a different region in Texas,’ or out of Texas altogether. So it’s a huge win for Plano. It’s going to be a huge win on the tax rolls in the future as well, for the money and funding they’re going to invest into the community and into that campus. Long term, it’s going to be another company offering great job opportunities for our residents in the community and for our neighboring communities’ residents.
Related
Plano officials confirmed they’ve been in discussions with the Dallas Stars to build a new arena at The Shops at Willow Bend site, but no formal offer has been made. What are the pros and cons of attracting a major sports team to the city?
I can’t really comment on that. All I can say is that the city did issue a press release based on the information that had been released by another communities’ leadership.
As Plano celebrates successes, how do you view the city’s relationship to Dallas?
We still want Dallas to win, because people know Dallas across the U.S. and internationally. So we refer to Dallas a lot when we say D-FW. A lot of people know the city of Dallas, and then obviously once we show them the North Texas region, we focus on Plano. But there’s a lot of other communities that have great things to offer as well. Overall, we want the city of Dallas to win, because I think it helps the entire region.
Related
Under Texas law, city voters can approve using sales tax to fund an economic development corporation, a nonprofit that finances new and expanded business enterprises. McKinney and Frisco fund EDCs, but Plano funds economic development through the city’s general fund and uses sales tax to fund Dallas Area Rapid Transit. The city considered ending that membership this year, but is staying with the agency. How do Plano’s economic development initiatives compare to cities like McKinney that fund an EDC?
It’s all about creativeness. For a general fund Economic Development Department, I would say the city of Plano is probably one of the more progressive as far as how they put their dollars and their tools to work. It’s really important to lay all your tools out on the table, almost like being a surgeon, and say, what do we need today to make this deal work? Or will it work? Or can we do it? EDCs have a lot more flexibility because of how they’re funded, and they’re almost a special nonprofit under state statute, where they are voted in by the residents, the citizens of the community. But you can still do a lot under a general fund. Even though we don’t have quite the flexibility here as an EDC, there’s still a lot of things we have in the toolbox to put deals together.
Related
Anything else to add?
I’m excited to be here. From when Ross Perot came up here and bought 2,500-plus acres to put Electronic Data Systems here [to] working with city leadership to go after other HQs — we want to keep that legacy alive and continue the momentum that has happened since the early 80s. We’re in a great spot. North Texas is its own animal, even when you compare it to Chicago, LA, New York. With Collin County and what we have along the Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121, I don’t see anything slowing down. There’s going to be a lot of opportunity for the communities up here to win these projects and help them locate. Whether it be from outside the state of Texas or internationally, there’s gonna be a lot of opportunities to do that.
This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.