The New Breeding Ground: DFW Is A Strong, Must-Have Market for National Firms

As the hottest market in the industry, commercial real estate's heavy hitters are doing whatever it takes to have a presence in Dallas-Fort Worth, even if it means buying their way in.

Just like Boston is ground zero for the life sciences industry and New York is a hotbed for financial services and fintech startups, DFW fills a special niche in the world of CRE, said John Boyd Jr., principal of Florida-based corporate site selection specialist The Boyd Co.

“DFW is a case study of how local real estate firms can scale to national prominence by building a strong reputation and a client-first culture, eventually gaining the attention of national real estate giants seeking profitable acquisitions in superior growth markets,” Boyd said in an email to Bisnow. 

DFW has developed a reputation as the epicenter of the commercial real estate world and a breeding ground for startups. CBRE, Hillwood and Trammell Crow Co. are each headquartered in DFW, while CRE giants like Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield, and JLL established major hubs in the metro long ago. The region leads the nation in corporate relocations, and those that aren’t moving to DFW have snapped up local firms to establish themselves in North Texas. 

The region also has a “sizzle factor” because of the opportunity to rub shoulders with celebrity CEOs and former sports stars who have entered the industry, Boyd said.

With one of the largest commercial real estate markets in North America, newcomers have the opportunity to make their mark in DFW, and companies both big and small can scale up under the watchful eye of the industry’s top players. 

In just the past three months, Colliers purchased Greystone’s Dallas-based multifamily investment sales firm, Cresa bought Dallas-based Fischer, and Stewart Information Services Corp. picked up the Lewisville-headquartered property services provider MCS. 

As local firms grow in prominence, it’s natural that they are acquired or splinter off when people look to step out and create their own firms to advance their careers, said Avison Young Senior Vice President of Investment Sales Susan Gwin Burks, adding that moving on to a bigger firm is a great stepping stone for the next generation of talent.

"We are always looking for opportunities to reinvent ourselves, reinvent our businesses, reinvent our companies,” Burks said of CRE professionals.

In addition to its massive inventory, DFW has leveraged national trends like reshoring, capitalized on the financial services explosion instigated by Y’all Street dynamics, and built a multitude of opportunities for local real estate practitioners, Boyd noted.

CRE transactions are often predicated on knowing the right people, so homegrown professionals regularly have a leg up in that regard, Burks said.

"It is the relationship that really drives the deal or the opportunity, and those relationships typically run very deep and stay put," she said.

For companies without that history, opportunities to buy entry into the market are always there. 

Cresa made its first significant move into DFW in 2022, when it merged with the 50-person tenant representation company ESRP. That company was founded by Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith and former members of The Staubach Co., which was established by another Dallas Cowboys legend, Roger Staubach.

The ESRP team helped the company acquire more Texas firms, Cresa CEO Tod Lickerman said. 

"They're really leading the charge building our Texas presence,” he said. “And that's just reflective of the importance of the DFW market and the Texas market."

The recent increase in mergers and acquisitions indicates many national firms are bullish on DFW’s real estate industry, according to Steve Triolet, senior vice president of research and market forecasting at Partners. He also noted big players don’t want to purchase a smaller company if there’s a risk of laying folks off.

DFW’s growing prominence has attracted more than just CRE companies, though. The rise of Y’all Street has also turned the metro into a financial hub. 

The Dallas-based Texas Stock Exchange raised $120M last year to create an alternative to the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market. TXSE gained approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission in October and plans to launch next year with a headquarters in the heart of the city.

The existing securities exchanges quickly followed suit by moving to the region. DFW has also received major commitments from companies such as Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Scotiabank and PennyMac Financial Services, which have solidified North Texas’ place in the financial market.

In addition, DFW has emerged as a magnet for corporate relocations, attracting new employers to the region’s growing population. 

DFW secured 100 new corporate headquarters between 2018 and 2024. That’s nearly 20% of the 560 total moves that happened across the country during that time.

This year, Site Selection Magazine chose the region as the best city in the country for headquarters. That’s in large part due to its business-friendly environment and the state’s lack of personal and corporate income taxes.

Money goes where it is welcome, Boyd said, and DFW has rolled out the red carpet for it.

The metro reclaimed its crown as the No. 1 market in the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2026 report from the Urban Land Institute and PwC last month. It’s also the top market in the country for investment sales, collecting nearly $18B across more than 800 transactions over the first three quarters of the year, according to Avison Young’s latest investment sales report.

In addition to the financial services companies and corporate relocations, DFW has been incredibly successful in attracting top real estate professionals, leading architects and some of the finest lawyers in the industry, Boyd said. 

“Doing deals in the DFW, you see that there's a high level of acumen,” he said. “It tends to be a magnet for some of the top performers in real estate.”

While local mergers and acquisitions have picked up in recent years as DFW’s star has risen on the national stage, the region has a rich history of CRE success stories. 

Dallas-based Trammell Crow was named the nation's largest private real estate operator in 1971 and has remained a powerhouse in the decades since. The company was acquired by CBRE in 2006 in a transaction valued at $2.2B.

Staubach's company built up a 52% market share in DFW's office sector in the first decade of the century by providing tenant representation before that was a common practice. When Chicago-based JLL came calling with a $727M merger in 2008, the CRE world sat up and took notice. 

The Trammell Crow and Staubach acquisitions helped position DFW firms as key assets in the CRE world.

Having a presence in DFW is imperative in today’s CRE industry, Lickerman said. The industry’s top firms are always looking for new opportunities in the region, but history has shown that DFW also offers newcomers the chance to make a name for themselves.

"Texas has always been the home to some great developers, and out of that comes a great training ground for professionals," Lickerman said.