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A major move to the suburbs<\/p>\nThe Brief<\/p>\n
AT&T is moving its global headquarters from Downtown Dallas to a 54-acre suburban campus in Plano, with the transition expected to begin in late 2028.<\/p>\n
The move poses a significant economic threat to the downtown area, with reports projecting a potential 30% drop in property values and a loss of foot traffic for local businesses.<\/p>\n
It remains unknown how many employees will stay in Dallas or what will happen to the AT&T Discovery District once the relocation is complete.<\/p>\n
PLANO, Texas – One of Dallas-Fort Worth\u2019s biggest employers is moving out of Dallas.<\/p>\n
On Monday, AT&T announced it is leaving Downtown Dallas and moving its global headquarters north to Plano.<\/p>\n
A major move to the suburbs<\/p>\n
What we know<\/p>\n
Dallas city leaders remain confident that downtown is making progress, and this offers new opportunities for the area. \u00a0However, recent reports show the move might hurt downtown economically, for both residents and local businesses.<\/p>\n
The company plans to build on 54 acres of land on Legacy Dr in Plano, the home of the former EDS headquarters.<\/p>\n
It hopes to have some employees on the new campus by late 2028.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
“The nature of the company and our work have both evolved significantly since we moved our headquarters to Dallas in 2008, but what hasn’t changed is our belief and confidence in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as the right place to operate a thriving multinational corporation,” the company said in a letter to employees.<\/p>\n
Economic impact on downtown<\/p>\n
Local perspective<\/p>\n
Adrian Cotten owns Pegasus City Brewery next door to the AT&T campus.<\/p>\n
“We had heard\u00a0a rumor, and we were just hoping it wasn’t true,” said Cotton.<\/p>\n
“We’re very sad, obviously. It’s a big blow. We’re a very small, local, family-owned and operated space, and we rely heavily on our lovely neighbors. So they will be missed for sure.”<\/p>\n
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Safety concerns and property values<\/p>\n
Dig deeper<\/p>\n
AT&T shared with employees that a big reason for the move is that the nature of the company and the work have evolved.<\/p>\n
According to a report commissioned by Downtown Dallas Inc, public safety was a concern for AT&T. The same report showed AT&T’s relocation could cause a 30 percent decrease in property values.<\/p>\n
Former city manager and UT Dallas professor Ted Benavides says\u00a0it will be a challenge for city leaders to replace AT&T, but not impossible.<\/p>\n
“It is a disappointment. I mean, there’s no way of getting around it. You want to hold on to what you have and get more of what you have,” said Benavides.<\/p>\n
“Economic development has its ups and downs, and we would need to adapt and respond to it and, you know, not be reactive, but try to make the best of the opportunity to do something different and be successful.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Dallas city leaders say the change came because the company preferred a suburban-style campus over skyscrapers. They pointed to future growth in the downtown area with the new Goldman Sachs campus in Victory Park and the ‘y’all street’ financial sector.<\/p>\n
Which is what Benavides did during his time as city manager.<\/p>\n
“How do they maintain the value of the building? You know, find other clients, find maybe this is an opportunity to get some different kind of business, maybe more diversified. So, in every and every bad thing, there’s always an opportunity,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Dallas and Plano\u2019s next steps<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
More changes could be coming to Downtown Dallas with the Mavericks and Stars both looking for new stadiums. Cotten told us she’d welcome the teams with open arms, but at the end of the day she hopes it’s something that brings people downtown.<\/p>\n
“When downtown’s busy, local businesses are busy, so we just hope that whatever’s brought in just brings the people,” said Cotten.<\/p>\n
FOX 4 asked AT&T if any employees would remain in the downtown offices and what the future looks like for the discovery district but didn’t hear back.<\/p>\n
Both Plano’s mayor and city manager sent FOX 4 statements expressing their excitement for AT&T’s relocation. A\u00a0rezoning request\u00a0at\u00a0the new headquarters\u00a0site\u00a0is scheduled to go before the Plano\u00a0planning and zoning committee\u00a0on February 2nd.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
The information in this story comes from a letter sent to AT&T employees and statements from Dallas leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief AT&T is moving its global headquarters from Downtown Dallas to a 54-acre suburban campus in Plano,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6861,2347,102,109,24625,160,162,161,51464],"class_list":{"0":"post-117091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-att","9":"tag-city-leaders","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-downtown-dallas","12":"tag-local-businesses","13":"tag-plano","14":"tag-plano-headlines","15":"tag-plano-news","16":"tag-property-values"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117091","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=117091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}