{"id":403287,"date":"2026-08-11T05:58:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403287\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:58:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:58:39","slug":"old-eds-god-pod-to-be-imploded-for-atts-new-billion-dollar-hq-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403287\/","title":{"rendered":"Old EDS \u2018God Pod\u2019 to be imploded for AT&T’s new billion-dollar HQ"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> This 1996 aerial photo shows the sprawling EDS campus in Plano’s Legacy Business Park. <\/p>\n

Sunday marks the end of an era and the start of something new in\u00a0Plano. <\/p>\n

Additional portions of the old Electronic Data Systems<\/a> campus, including the futuristic executive office building dubbed the “God Pod,” will be imploded Sunday morning. The demolition is no surprise. Telecommunications giant AT&T planned to demolish the entire slate of buildings and parking garages to build its new billion-dollar-plus global headquarters at 5400 Legacy Drive. <\/p>\n

Plano officials told The Dallas Morning News\u00a0“a planned controlled demolition” will take place on Parkwood Boulevard between Legacy Drive and Democracy Drive around 8 a.m.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

AT&T declined to comment on the demolition. KDC, the developer of AT&T’s campus,<\/a> said construction is underway and demolition has begun at the site’s north end. The company declined to provide any additional details.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

EDS’ move to Plano in the late 1980s was the first in a flurry of moves that helped establish the Collin County suburb as a headquarters hotspot<\/a>. EDS founder Ross Perot purchased 2,700 acres in west Plano to establish the master-planned Legacy business park. <\/p>\n

For his son, real estate developer Ross Perot Jr., the site holds special memories. He learned to fly a helicopter there, and he remembers riding horses when the Plano parcels his father owned were just raw land.\u00a0Perot Jr. said he toured the old EDS site a few months back with AT&T CEO John Stankey just before demolition began. Perot Jr. said he won’t attend Sunday’s implosion. <\/p>\n

“It’s the end of a great era,” Perot Jr. said. “AT&T will build a landmark that we will all be proud of.” <\/p>\n

Frito-Lay and JCPenney followed EDS. The big-name companies announced in the late 1980s that they, too, would move their operations to Plano. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> AT&T plans to build its new headquarters in Plano. Demolition has started at the old EDS campus. (Steve Nurenberg\/The Dallas Morning News) <\/p>\n

EDS started moving into the Plano campus in 1985. After a spat with General Motors CEO Roger Smith, GM bought out Perot and a handful of other EDS executives for about $750 million in 1986. They left EDS, and Perot eventually started rival Perot Systems. <\/p>\n

By 1993, the campus was finished, and the move was complete. The campus’ centerpiece was the futuristic “God Pod” \u2014 an executive office building with a grand reception lobby 55 feet above the ground. EDS was spun off by GM in 1996. Mergers and acquisitions put the property in the hands of Hewlett-Packard and later DXC Technology. <\/p>\n

Dallas-based NexPoint <\/a>bought the headquarters in 2018 and planned to make the campus the centerpiece of the Texas Research Quarter until AT&T came along. The telecommunications giant announced in January that it would build its 54-acre global headquarters at 5400 Legacy Drive. <\/p>\n

Demolition started at the site a couple of months ago.\u00a0Plano approved a $20 million incentive package<\/a> and a lengthy property tax rebate to support AT&T’s relocation from downtown Dallas. It is the largest incentive package Plano has given a private employer to date. <\/p>\n

AT&T must spend at least $1.35 billion in construction costs on the project. The firm must also build a minimum of 2 million square feet of office, amenity and retail space at the site, eventually employ 10,000 full-time workers at the property and occupy the planned headquarters for 25 years. <\/p>\n

Stankey previously said the firm could partially occupy the new campus by the second half of 2028. <\/p>\n

As part of the demolition, Parkwood Boulevard between Legacy Drive and Tennyson Parkway and\u00a0Legacy Drive between Parkwood Boulevard\u00a0and Hedgcoxe Road will be closed at 7 a.m and are expected to reopen around 9:30 a.m. Sunday. <\/p>\n

“If a nearby resident or business hears the demolition or feels a brief vibration, there is no need to call 9-1-1. This demolition activity is planned. Police, fire-rescue and other city personnel will be on site throughout the operation,” Plano officials said. <\/p>\n

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Sign up for the Morning Roundup, a free newsletter delivering the latest North Texas news each morning.<\/a> <\/p>\n

This article originally published at Old EDS ‘God Pod’ to be imploded for AT&T’s new billion-dollar HQ<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This 1996 aerial photo shows the sprawling EDS campus in Plano’s Legacy Business Park. Sunday marks the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6861,14339,141317,141316,36873,49867,141315,7195,160,162,161,38985,6945],"class_list":["post-403287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-att","tag-demolition","tag-eds-founder","tag-executive-office-building","tag-global-headquarters","tag-john-stankey","tag-legacy-business-park","tag-legacy-drive","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-ross-perot","tag-the-dallas-morning-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403287","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=403287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}