\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAT&T will soon call Plano home for its global headquarters, taking over a space that is no stranger to big business.<\/p>\n
The $1.3 billion, 54-acre AT&T headquarters will replace the former Electronic Data Systems campus, which opened in 1985 and served as a catalyst for corporate growth in the Legacy area but has been vacant for more than seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis site really is the heart of the Legacy business park,\u201d Assistant City Manager Doug McDonald said.<\/p>\n
The gist<\/p>\n
The company announced the move<\/a> in January, and Plano City Council<\/a> approved $20 million in financial incentives Feb. 23 to facilitate the new headquarters.<\/p>\n The former Electronic Data Systems campus at the site at 5400 Legacy Drive is set for demolition. AT&T\u2019s relocation is the first major corporate headquarters redevelopment project in Plano, McDonald said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis location will provide us with the necessary room to cost effectively consolidate all Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex administrative space, including our three largest locations in Central Dallas, Plano and Irving, and create a corporate campus designed for collaboration, innovation and engagement,\u201d AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a statement.<\/p>\n Diving deeper<\/p>\n The $20 million economic development grant<\/a> is the largest ever provided by Plano.<\/p>\n The AT&T grant is split into two $10 million incentives, one tied to the campus redevelopment and one tied to job creation.<\/p>\n One agreement details a 65% property tax rebate that would last for 25 years. AT&T could choose to begin the rebate period Jan. 1 of 2029, 2030 or 2031, according to city documents.<\/p>\n The second agreement will give AT&T the first $4 million from the grant after retention of the first 4,000 employees and would be required to reach 10,000 employees by the end of 2039 to receive the full grant.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re connecting them with the right resources to succeed and create these jobs for not only our community\u2019s residents, but our neighboring communities,\u201d Plano Economic Development Director Michael Talley said. \u201cThat\u2019s 10,000 people being on campus, going to restaurants, going to happy hour and grabbing coffee. It\u2019s kind of like a snowball effect as far as what the impact could be.\u201d<\/p>\n The backstory<\/p>\n Ross Perot oversaw the original development of the EDS campus in the 1980s. The project helped fuel \u201clong-term economic growth\u201d in the area, city officials said.<\/p>\n McDonald called the EDS building one of three campuses that \u201creally started Legacy business park,\u201d along with the JCPenney<\/a> and Frito Lay campuses.<\/p>\n The city is set to install a pair of statues honoring Perot near the Shops at Legacy later this year.<\/p>\n EDS was sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2008, and the headquarters has sat vacant since 2018, when it was acquired by current owners NexPoint.<\/p>\n A previous plan approved in 2023 would have seen the site redeveloped as part of a 200-acre life sciences district called the Texas Research Quarter. Council approved a zoning change<\/a> Feb. 23 reverting the property back to its original zoning from the previous development plan zoning for the Texas Research Quarter.<\/a><\/p>\n A NexPoint spokesperson declined to comment on future plans for the Texas Research Quarter.<\/p>\n McDonald said the way the building was built made a demolition the best option for redevelopment.<\/p>\n \u201cJust with the size of this campus, it had some challenges especially in a post-pandemic leasing world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe see campuses being built today with all the walkable amenities. … When you have something that customized, that [Perot] put in place in the late \u201880s, it makes it very difficult for other companies to reuse that same facility.\u201d<\/p>\n Zooming out<\/p>\n McDonald said he hopes the AT&T headquarters will economically benefit the city in more ways than one.<\/p>\n On top of job growth, he said the new headquarters will provide the added benefit of increased property tax revenue.<\/p>\n The current 100-acre property generates around $140,000 annually in city property taxes, McDonald said. Once AT&T is fully moved in, he said the city would collect around $6 million per year from the 54-acre site.<\/p>\n Talley added that residents could see the benefit of the increased property tax revenue.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen commercial is paying in as much possible into the coffers to help offset the cost of the residents, their tax rates can be lower,\u201d he said. \u201cThat can really help offset the costs and improve the services at the city level.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonald added that there\u2019s still opportunity for more redevelopment on the site, as AT&T\u2019s campus will only occupy the northern half.<\/p>\n With very little green space left in Plano, redevelopment of old sites is the main way for new developments to enter the city. McDonald noted the former JCPenney campus just down the road from EDS, along with Collin Creek Mall and Assembly Park and east Plano, as other ongoing redevelopment projects.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times cities will look at a green field and say, \u2018Hey, this is an opportunity,\u2019\u201d Talley said. \u201cWell, we look at the redevelopment projects the same way.<\/p>\n Looking ahead<\/p>\n Demolition of the existing EDS site will begin this year, and AT&T is targeting partial occupancy in the new space \u201cas early as the second half of 2028,\u201d Stankey said.<\/p>\n The company will aim to move employees from multiple North Texas offices into the new building, with a goal to increase that workforce to 10,000 over the next decade.<\/p>\n Plano officials believe AT&T\u2019s move can push the Legacy District forward for years to come.<\/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 Mayor John Muns said. \u201cWith surrounding Legacy developments already advancing innovation, the addition of AT&T brings fresh momentum to this iconic area and helps position Legacy for its next generation of success.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacquelyn Burrer contributed to this report.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AT&T will soon call Plano home for its global headquarters, taking over a space that is no stranger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6861,84709,5592,2549,160,84710,162,161],"class_list":["post-217116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-att","tag-eds","tag-headquarters","tag-legacy","tag-plano","tag-plano-business","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217116","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=217116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}