Dallas City Council has voted to approve more than $18M in economic development incentives for the construction of a new office tower for Goldman Sachs in Downtown Dallas.
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The 800K SF office will anchor Hunt Realty Investments’ forthcoming North End project, an 11-acre development off Field Street that could include up to 3.7M SF of retail, multifamily, hotel and office space as well as a public park.
The incentive package abates 50% of property taxes on the added value to the property over a period of 10 years and 50% of business personal property over a period of five years, according to city documents. It also includes $4.4M in grants for job creation and expedited permitting costs.
In exchange for the incentive package, Goldman Sachs has agreed to double its local workforce by retaining the 2,500 employees housed at its office in the Trammell Crow Center and adding another 2,500 jobs by the end of 2028. Employees will have an average base salary of $90K, per city documents.
President Colin Fitzgibbons said Hunt has owned the property, which is home to North End Apartments, since 1997. The decision to tear down the low-rise complex and convert the property to mixed-use makes sense given downtown’s explosive growth in recent years, Fitzgibbons told Bisnow in a previous interview.
“Field Street is a very important corridor and entrance into downtown and to Uptown,” he said. “This [project] could go a long way in broadening the growth in our core.”
Council Member Paul E. Ridley moved to deny the incentive package, stating that Dallas touts enough intrinsic benefits to lure a company without having to offer large public subsidies.
“I do not see the need for public support for a wealthy public corporation that is highly capitalized and does not need this money to decide where they are going to locate their office,” he said.
Council Member Omar Narvaez called the incentives minimal compared to what the city stands to gain from the project. The Goldman Sachs tower alone would deliver $2.4M in property tax revenue for at least six to seven years, he said. As of now, the city realizes around $660K in annual property tax revenue from the existing apartments.
“The notion of sitting back on our heels in a competitive world will make Dallas a loser," Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said. "We cannot be myopic and not think about the competition that is so ready to step in and take projects away from us."
The office tower is expected to cost $480M, making it the most expensive project in Central Dallas in decades, according to the Dallas Morning News. It is expected to open by the end of 2027.
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