{"id":111673,"date":"2026-01-05T19:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111673\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T19:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T19:44:09","slug":"plano-leaders-herald-major-win-in-att-headquarter-relocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111673\/","title":{"rendered":"Plano leaders herald \u2018major win\u2019 in AT&T headquarter relocation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plano leaders heralded another corporate victory Monday after AT&T said it will build<\/a> its new global headquarters<\/a> in the city, boosting its status as one of North Texas\u2019 premier business hubs.<\/p>\n

Plano council member Rick Horne learned of AT&T\u2019s announcement Monday morning from The Dallas Morning News and credits the city\u2019s educated workforce, business-friendly environment, high quality of life and proximity to key airports for its success at attracting<\/a> major corporate relocations and Fortune 500 companies. <\/p>\n

AT&T\u2019s move, Horne said, is \u201ca continuation of a story\u201d sparked when H. Ross Perot Sr. moved his information technology company Electronic Data Systems to Plano in the 1980s, and companies like retail giant JCPenney followed suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not something new,\u201d Horne said, adding, \u201cPlano has had some great success with Toyota [North America] moving here, Liberty Mutual, Capital One, Boeing \u2026 Frito-Lay, PepsiCo, all those have come here for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

\"Pedestrians<\/p>\n

Plano is ushering \u201ca new renaissance<\/a>\u201d with major employers across diverse sectors, said Ray Perryman, president and CEO of The Perryman Group, an economic research and analysis firm in Waco. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot going on in Plano<\/a>,\u201d Perryman said in an email. \u201cFrom the financial sector to biotech, Plano is proactively seeking to continue to emerge as a center for these types of businesses in addition to headquarters or campus operations such as AT&T.\u201d<\/p>\n

Securing AT&T will bring jobs, local spending, demand for real estate, tax revenue and \u201cmultiplier effects\u201d for the suburb, Perryman said, a \u201cmajor win.\u201d<\/p>\n

AT&T spent months scouring North Texas<\/a> for office space before landing in Plano. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Pedestrians<\/p>\n

\u201cAT&T\u2019s relocation represents a powerful reinvestment in the Legacy business district, building on an extraordinary foundation that has driven growth in Plano and our region for decades,\u201d Plano Mayor John Muns<\/a> said in a statement. \u201cWith surrounding Legacy developments already advancing innovation, the addition of AT&T brings fresh momentum to this iconic area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horne said details about how the city and AT&T coordinated the relocation will come from the mayor\u2019s office in the next couple days. <\/p>\n

Dallas developer NexPoint owned 215 acres where AT&T plans to build its new home. The site includes the former EDS headquarters. <\/p>\n

NexPoint planned to oversee a 4-million-square-foot development called The Texas Research Quarter<\/a> on the same property in Plano\u2019s Legacy neighborhood. The space would host labs and manufacturing space for life sciences companies. Last year, Plano council members approved up to $15 million to reimburse NexPoint for the redevelopment. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how AT&T\u2019s arrival will change those plans<\/a>, and NexPoint declined to comment on the project Monday.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Kelle Marsalis, president of the Plano Chamber of Commerce, said AT&T\u2019s move to 5400 Legacy Dr. is the result of the city government\u2019s leadership, the suburb\u2019s strong schools and its ability to grow and attract a skilled workforce. She expects the telecom giant\u2019s new headquarters will help the city to further develop this workforce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA company like AT&T which is very innovative and very community-focused will bring a lot of \u2026 highly skilled jobs to our community,\u201d Marsalis said.<\/p>\n

Todd Birenbaum, a Plano resident since 2003 who lives about three miles away from the site of AT&T\u2019s new headquarters, praised the move, even as he understands some of his neighbors may be concerned the development will exacerbate traffic<\/a> as Plano is nearly built out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is more business coming in, especially for an area that\u2019s been empty for so long,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see Plano being able to bring and attract \u2026 new business to utilize existing space, rather than converting that [or] tearing it down and building more apartments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pedestrians<\/p>\n

Pedestrians walk through AT&T Discovery District past the communications company\u2019s headquarters on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025 in Downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n

Angela Piazza \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Plano\u2019s voters have agreed to invest millions of tax dollars<\/a> in maintaining the city\u2019s aging infrastructure<\/a> to keep up with fast growth, and the city council voted for the first time in 16 years to raise Plano\u2019s property tax rate<\/a> last fall. <\/p>\n

The news of AT&T\u2019s move has sparked concern about the future of downtown Dallas, which is currently home to the company\u2019s 37-story Whitacre Tower and AT&T\u2019s $100 million Discovery District property<\/a>. The news of the company\u2019s move also comes as the Dallas Stars eye a new arena<\/a> in Plano, a move from the team\u2019s current home at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. <\/p>\n

Ted Benavides, former Dallas city manager and a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas doesn\u2019t see AT&T\u2019s move to Plano as a major blow to Dallas\u2019urban core, which attracted financial services company Goldman Sachs to spend $709 million<\/a> on an office complex near the AAC.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s been heralding the demise of Dallas, and I think it\u2019s way overrated,\u201d Benavides said. \u201cPlano competes and so does Dallas, maybe it had a better argument this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the move will take AT&T completely out of Dallas proper<\/a>. The company had nearly 6,000 workers assigned to its downtown offices in 2022. CEO John Stankey said in a statement Monday the company is targeting partial occupancy for the new headquarters \u201cas early as the second half of 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horne sees no rivalry between Dallas and Plano. <\/p>\n

\u201cDallas is a great city,\u201d Horne said. \u201cI don\u2019t see us in competition with Dallas, but all the cities are competing with each other for these great corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff Writer Nicholas Wooten contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

Dallas leaders say downtown didn\u2019t fit with AT&T headquarter plans<\/a>LUV, CAT, DINO and more: Dallas-Fort Worth companies with offbeat stock symbols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano leaders heralded another corporate victory Monday after AT&T said it will build its new global headquarters in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6861,910,960,5592,160,162,161,6178],"class_list":{"0":"post-111673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-att","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-collin-county","11":"tag-headquarters","12":"tag-plano","13":"tag-plano-headlines","14":"tag-plano-news","15":"tag-relocation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}