Dallas scrambles to keep AT&T HQ from bolting to suburbs

Dallas is doing damage-control as AT&T weighs a possible move of its global headquarters out of downtown.

City Manager Kimberly Tolbert told the Dallas Economic Development board this week that officials are “actively working to ensure that the future of AT&T is in the city of Dallas,” the Dallas Business Journal reported. The telecom giant has reportedly toured sites in Plano, Richardson and Irving, including the Park at Legacy, a 107-acre mixed-use corporate campus, located at 6501 Legacy Drive, the current home to JCPenney’s headquarters.

AT&T has made no public comment, but sources cited safety concerns and the push to shorten employee commutes after mandating a five-day office week.

The stakes are high: AT&T is the second-largest public company in North Texas, with $122 billion in revenue and nearly 142,000 employees. It has anchored at the 37-story Whitacre Tower at 208 S. Ackard Street since 2008, and has a lease there until 2030. But if the company pulls up stakes the fallout could be seismic: a February report from Boston Consulting Group estimated that losing AT&T could cut downtown property values by 30 percent, wiping out $62 million in annual property tax revenue.

Tolbert and Linda McMahon, CEO of the Dallas EDC, said they’ve met with AT&T CEO John Stankey and other executives in recent weeks as part of a broader retention strategy. EDC board chair Gilbert Gerst said at the Sept. 2 meeting AT&T should be swayed to stay put in Dallas “at all costs.” While Gerst voiced a preference for keeping the HQ downtown, he stressed that city leaders would settle for anywhere inside Dallas’ borders.

AT&T’s hunt underscores that downtown Dallas has long struggled with public safety and commuter convenience. A headquarters shift north would follow a well-trodden path of corporate giants decamping for the suburbs, echoing Toyota’s move to Plano in 2017. But for Dallas officials, keeping AT&T inside city lines is now as much about civic identity as tax base. McMahon said the company is “part of Dallas; they are integral to the city’s very identity.”

Whether that identity remains tethered to downtown real estate — or migrates up the Tollway — will hinge on how far the city is willing to go to appease the telecom giant.— Eric Weilbacher