AT&T plans to move its global headquarters out of Dallas proper and build a new corporate campus 20 miles north in Plano.
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The new campus will be on 54 acres at 5400 Legacy Drive, according to a statement AT&T shared with Bisnow.
“This location will provide us with the necessary room to cost effectively consolidate all Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex administrative space, including our three largest locations in Central Dallas, Plano and Irving, and create a corporate campus designed for collaboration, innovation and engagement,” CEO John Stankey said in a statement.
The global telecommunications titan said it hopes to begin moving into its new space during the second half of 2028.
The decision comes after almost a year of “consideration, deliberation and planning,” according to Stankey. Company officials reportedly toured office space in Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs such as Irving, Plano and Richardson during the summer and fall of last year. Meanwhile, downtown officials swore to retain AT&T “at all costs.”
AT&T has had its headquarters in Downtown Dallas since 2008 and has a lease at Whitacre Tower through 2030.
The move is expected to improve the employee experience at AT&T, as the company told The Dallas Morning News that the new location would shorten the commute for the majority of its North Texas workers.
AT&T required all office employees to return in person five days a week starting in January of last year.
“The nature of the company and our work have both evolved significantly since we moved our headquarters to Dallas in 2008, but what hasn't changed is our belief and confidence in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as the right place to operate a thriving multinational corporation,” Stankey said.
AT&T spent $100M to open its Discovery District in Downtown Dallas in 2021. The company had nearly 6,000 employees at its downtown offices in 2022, according to the DMN.
Should AT&T completely move out of the city, Dallas property values could drop by 30% and lead to the loss of $62M in annual property tax revenue, the Dallas Business Journal reported last year.
“AT&T’s transition will be gradual, and the company will remain part of our city’s fabric in the years ahead,” Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert told the DMN.
AT&T's desire for a “new horizontal location with significant acreage for development” was the tipping point for the move, Tolbert said.
DFW developer NexPoint previously announced plans to build a 4M SF project with labs and manufacturing space for life sciences companies at the site of AT&T’s new campus. NexPoint officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how AT&T’s planned move could affect that project.
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