Taylor Adams
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AT&T confirmed what has been whispered about for months on Monday morning: The technology giant is moving to Plano. Despite the news, local leaders are sticking to a message of optimism regarding the future of Dallas’ urban core.
The Fortune 500 company moved its global headquarters to Dallas in 2008, but last year, it began scouting out land in the northern suburbs for a new campus. That land search came after a Downtown Dallas Inc. (DDI) study warned that concerns about public safety and homelessness were affecting the company’s interest in Big D’s urban core. Coming alongside threats by Saks Global to shutter Neiman Marcus’ flagship store downtown, city leaders scrambled to assure residents and businesses that the major players would be appeased into staying in the city’s core.
In a statement Monday morning, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson suggested that those talks eventually fell through with AT&T due to the company’s interest in moving away from a skyscraper-style development. According to an email sent by AT&T CEO John Stankey to employees on Monday, 54 acres of land along Legacy Drive in Plano will be the footprint of the company’s new headquarters.
“As we worked to retain AT&T, it became clear that its current leaders preferred a large horizontal, suburban-style campus rather than the skyscrapers that define our city center,” Johnson said.
Johnson, along with City Manager Kimberly Tolbert and City Council member Jesse Moreno, whose district includes the downtown area, have stressed that AT&T’s move will “open the door for” new opportunities in the city’s urban core. In a statement, Moreno acknowledged that he is “disappointed” by AT&T’s decision.
“I see opportunities for reinvigoration and new partnership in downtown Dallas. The city continues to attract strong interest and investment, including a growing number of financial institutions choosing to relocate here,” Moreno said. “We are moving with urgency to ensure the core of Dallas remains competitive and welcoming to new headquarters and job creators.”
Moreno, who chairs the council’s Economic Development Committee, also pointed out that despite the concerns identified in the Downtown Dallas Inc. survey, strides have been made in improving the downtown environment. Dallas police data analyzed by WFAA revealed that violent incidents downtown had decreased by the end of November 2025 compared with the same period the previous year, thanks in part to an initiative aimed at increasing police presence downtown and better addressing homelessness. City leaders also touted “the effective end” to downtown homelessness in 2025. (The claim means that individuals identified as sleeping downtown are prioritized for services, not that you’ll never see another homeless person walking through the urban core.)
Moreno did not comment on what he believes AT&T’s downtown departure will mean for the future of City Hall. The City Council has launched an economic development analysis to determine whether the current Marilla Street structure is best serving the downtown area, or whether it could present economic advantages for the city to rethink its urban core’s development.
Downtown Dallas Inc. is also looking on the sunny side. After acknowledging AT&T’s substantial presence in downtown in a statement provided to the Observer, DDI pointed to the possibilities that such a new space affords.
“The company’s announcement does not change our conviction that Downtown Dallas is one of the best places in the country to do business,” the statement from DDI President and CEO Jennifer Scripps noted. “The urban core remains the economic engine of the region and the center of ‘Y’all Street.’ Downtown continues to make meaningful progress — billions of dollars in public investment are underway, and significant private redevelopment remains in the pipeline. While this moment is challenging, it also creates space for new opportunities and continued reinvention.”
Even as leaders espouse optimism, Downtown Dallas Inc. has estimated that an AT&T relocation would tank downtown property values, costing around $2.7 billion overall, The Dallas Morning News reports.
Stankey told the News that the company hopes to be partially moved into its new campus by the end of 2028, and that the new space will allow AT&T to “cost-effectively consolidate all Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex administrative space, including our three largest locations in Central Dallas, Plano, and Irving.” As of 2022, the downtown Dallas office held 6,000 workers.
In a post to social media, council member Cara Mendelsohn, whose district shares a border with Plano, remarked that the new campus will improve commuting times and parking availability for AT&T employees, “many” of whom live in Dallas’ northern districts. An internal AT&T report found that relocating to Plano will reduce commuting times for the majority of AT&T’s employees.
Mendelsohn also offered her own perspective on why the company might be considering leaving Big D.
“Each year at budget time, I share concerns [the city of Dallas] will lose residents and businesses because of our uncompetitively high property tax rate along with a few really bad policies and plans supported by a majority of the city council,” Mendelsohn wrote.
“AT&T’s transition will be gradual, and the company will remain part of our city’s fabric in the years ahead,” Tolbert said. “Dallas is a city defined by its resilience and ability to attract new opportunities, and I look forward to working with Mayor Johnson, the Dallas City Council, our city staff, our partners, and our business leaders as we continue to shape the future of our urban core.”
