A city sign committee gave financial giant Morgan Stanley a key approval for what could be its new regional office while the Texas Stock Exchange wasn’t as lucky.
Dallas’ Special Sign District Advisory Committee unanimously approved the bank’s request for signage on Fountain Place, a nearly 60-story green-glass, rocket-shaped skyscraper at 1445 Ross Ave. It’s the latest sign that Morgan Stanley intends to make Dallas the home of its new billion-dollar regional hub.
The routine approval comes weeks after the Dallas City Council approved $18.5 million in incentives as well as additional tax abatements to woo the firm and support a two-phased development.
Under the plan, Fountain Place would serve as a temporary base while Morgan Stanley waits for a new Uptown high-rise. Morgan Stanley would lease about 255,000 square feet at Fountain Place for just over four years. Around 2031, the banking giant would then occupy roughly 700,000 square feet in a new Uptown tower at McKinney Avenue and Fairmount Street for 16 years.
Morgan Stanley plans to invest nearly $97 million and bring 1,500 jobs to Fountain Place by 2031. The firm will invest more than $684 million in the new Uptown building by 2031 and employ 3,800 people at the site by the end of 2035 with the possibility of additional relocations. The developer is expected to invest another $650 million to build Morgan Stanley’s new office, bringing the estimated value of the development to more than $1.3 billion, city documents show.
The move would dramatically increase Morgan Stanley’s more than 160,000 square feet of current office space in Dallas-Fort Worth. The largest share is housed at Uptown’s PwC Tower.
Construction of the new Uptown tower is slated to start this fall. While the bank has said nothing regarding its Dallas plans, city documents show that Morgan Stanley narrowed its search for an operational hub to two cities — Dallas and Alpharetta, Ga. Morgan Stanley has more than 3,000 employees in Alpharetta, making it one of the Atlanta suburb’s largest employers.
Perhaps another sign of the move, Morgan Stanley has also listed 20 jobs in Dallas within the last month. There’s no word on when Morgan Stanley will announce an official decision regarding the office hub.
Morgan Stanley’s sign request will now head to Dallas’ planning commission, said committee member Melissa Kingston.
The stock exchange signed a lease to occupy space at the tower. However, provisions would allow TXSE to get out of the lease without penalty if certain conditions aren’t met. A key point — city officials approving the ticker.
Sign committee members delayed taking action, asking TXSE representatives to come back for a specially called meeting July 21. Members of the committee asked TXSE to create an animation to demonstrate the movement and brightness of the ticker at next week’s meeting, Kingston said.
Current sign district rules don’t allow tickers, meaning TXSE’s case is more complicated. Messages to TXSE representatives were not immediately returned.