JPMorgan Chase Provides $400M Loan for AT&T’s Next HQ

The developer of AT&T’s upcoming headquarters move secured a $400 million loan from JPMorgan Chase.

America’s largest bank will lend Dallas-based developer KDC $400 million for the construction of AT&T’s $1.4 billion headquarters at 5400 Legacy Drive in Plano, marking a significant early stage in the project, the Dallas Business Journal reported. Terms of the loan were not disclosed.

AT&T officially announced its plans to leave Dallas in January. The company currently occupies a 37-story tower at 208 South Akard Street in Downtown Dallas, and it hopes to consolidate its offices around the Metroplex in the proposed 54-acre campus in Plano, CEO John Stankey has stated.

However, space wasn’t the company’s only consideration. Emails exchanged between Stankey and Dallas city leaders months before the company’s January announcement revealed his “ongoing” concerns about the city’s ability to improve quality of life downtown.

After AT&T announced that it would leave Dallas, the City of Plano offered the company a $20 million economic incentives package — the largest in the city’s history, according to local reports. The offer stipulates that AT&T must invest at least $1.4 billion to build a minimum of 2 million square feet of office, amenity and retail space at 5400 Legacy Drive. The company must also employ 10,000 full-time workers at the complex and occupy it for at least 25 years.

AT&T’s departure could scoop a hefty chunk out of Dallas’ hollowing urban core. AT&T is the largest publicly traded company in Dallas by employee count, according to the publication. Spatially, AT&T occupies about 3 million square feet of office space in the city, more than any other private employer, according to CoStar.

The company has been headquartered in Dallas since it moved from San Antonio in 2008, the outlet reported. Its current lease runs through the end of 2031, but the new office could open and start operating as early as 2028.

— Isaiah Mitchell