Morgan Stanley Planning $700M Investment in Uptown High-Rise

While Morgan Stanley plans $700 million for its new Uptown Dallas operations hub, they’ve put a band-aid on Downtown Dallas’s wounds with a short-term lease.

Dallas City Council will vote Wednesday on a $18.5 million incentive package for Morgan Stanley for signing the lease. The package also includes a specific 90 percent tax abatement for the company’s four year lease of 255,000 square feet at 1445 Ross Avenue, known as Fountain Place. Morgan Stanley plans to invest nearly $100 million and bring over 1,500 jobs downtown before it leaves for Uptown, according to the Dallas Morning News.

When the firm moves in 2031, Morgan Stanley will become the anchor tenant at a planned high-rise at 2401 McKinney Avenue. Its new lease would run the course of 16 years, and have 3,800 people by the end of 2035 occupying around 700,000 square feet. The firm will be investing north of $684 million in the new building, with developer Trammell Crow Company investing $650 million to build the Morgan Stanley offices. Morgan Stanley will get another 90 percent tax abatement at the Uptown site for 10 years, according to the publication.

Construction is slated to begin on the new site in fall 2026.

Getting Morgan Stanley for a few years is welcome news for the Downtown Dallas area, which is openly-bleeding office tenants, but it’s far from healed. AT&T announced plans to leave, Neiman Marcus is shuttering its downtown flagship, and local pro sports teams the Mavericks and Stars are moving out of the American Airlines Center.

While downtown struggles, its Uptown neighbor is thriving. The area has become one of the hottest financial districts in the U.S., and the nickname “Y’all Street” is beginning to carry more weight among global financial players. Anchored by the shiny new Texas Stock Exchange, the state has set its sights on London as it aims to attract international investment to Uptown.

— Hunter Cooke