This wasn't surprising to me, but it is somewhat interesting. The quote from the city manager is crazy.

Quote:

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"Business leaders have praised our successes in our urban core, which include expanded police presence and our remarkable success relocating people experiencing homelessness," Tolbert said

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Homelessness downtown is still a pretty big issue and certainly was a factor in AT&T's decision. I'm curious to see if there is a plan to clean up downtown before the World Cup.


https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/att-moves-global-headquarters-downtown-dallas-to-plano-annnouncement/287-b6f3d154-b447-41ef-b63f-ff16637b7017

Quote:

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The study found that property values downtown would decrease 30% if AT&T left, representing a $2.7 billion drop in property value and $62 million loss in property taxes for the city of Dallas.

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Why do I get the feeling that I know exactly how they're gonna try to make up for that lost property tax revenue?

Pretty interesting development. AT&T was rumored throughout 2025 to be leaving due to the security concerns downtown; yet many believed they ultimately wouldn't do it based on perceived loyalty to Dallas, incentives, past investments, DART access for employees, etc. Its a pretty big black eye for Dallas.

Interestingly, they are relocating to the old EDS campus, which is a strange campus to say the least. It will be interesting to see what they end up doing there to redevelopment the campus to remain competitive with Legacy, Legacy West, Granite Park, Frisco Station, The Star, Hall Park, etc.

I was surprised because I thought this was done and announced months ago.

I can't blame them with the sudden need to tear down JEJ and city hall for a ******* casino

By "JEJ", you mean the central library too? Is that really something that's been proposed?

drewser95 said:

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By "JEJ", you mean the central library too? Is that really something that's been proposed?

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yup. It's somewhere between rumour and done-deal. My guess is done deal


https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2025/11/11/wilonsky-do-the-downtown-library-and-dallas-city-hall-share-the-same-fate/

J.P. 03 said:

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Quote:

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The study found that property values downtown would decrease 30% if AT&T left, representing a $2.7 billion drop in property value and $62 million loss in property taxes for the city of Dallas.

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Why do I get the feeling that I know exactly how they're gonna try to make up for that lost property tax revenue?

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Maybe they can follow Plano's lead and just leave DART.

Moving to the old EDS campus is interesting.

I'm curious what is happening with the old Pioneer building in Las Colinas. Just a prime building sitting there empty.

This move just put the nail in the coffin that is downtown Dallas. This move was anticipated in this article from last week:

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/dallas-texas-downtown-struggle-e66ce96b?st=3doNtP&reflink=article_copyURL_share

Downtown Dallas has the second highest CRE vacancy rates in the country only behind Seattle at 27.2%.

This graphic is interesting for the stats and the fact that some of these neighborhood names are totally made up and not used in DFW.

Spaceship said:

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Pretty interesting development. AT&T was rumored throughout 2025 to be leaving due to the security concerns downtown; yet many believed they ultimately wouldn't do it based on perceived loyalty to Dallas, incentives, past investments, DART access for employees, etc. It's a pretty big black eye for Dallas..

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AT&T has spent a lot of money downtown. The Discovery District is quite nice. I don't know what'll happen there.

"Nail in the coffin" is a bit strong. Downtown still has some things going for it, Farmers Market for example. But things are trending the wrong way. Worst thing that's happened down there in the last 15 years is building The Bridge downtown.

Why do you think that the bridge is thebworst thing to happen in the last 15 years?

That comment threw me at first as well, but I think he's referring to The Bridge homeless shelter, and not the Calatrava bridge to Trinity Groves.

That's correct. Sorry for the confusion.

I kinda wish you were talking about the bridge to trinity grove, I was intrigued to hear that perspective!

aggiesherpa said:

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I kinda wish you were talking about the bridge to trinity grove, I was intrigued to hear that perspective!

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Well, we now have people firing ARs off that bridge in public with zero consequence.

Regarding The Bridge, one of the most brain dead decisions made by Dallas City Council. A suicidal move.

How about relocating those people away from the public instead of establishing a base of operations in the heart of the city.

No one wants to be around that as everyone keeps telling them and they continue to ignore.

aggiesherpa said:

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Moving to the old EDS campus is interesting.

I'm curious what is happening with the old Pioneer building in Las Colinas. Just a prime building sitting there empty.

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It will be sold and marketed as a multi-tenant conventional office building. Its a ton of SF to fill up though.

The old Exxon campus across 114 is also an interesting situation. A nice but vintage office campus sitting on a bunch of valuable land, but seems to not garner much interest.

Noted. I was not aware there were separate commercial names different than residential or common names.

This is not good for Downtown as it takes away just about any reason for any normal person to be there.

The only thing that could possibly save it is a new stadium or central sports area where people could go and congregate. Downtown needs to have a reason for people to come there and they just lost their biggest.

And a casino won't work because it will turn an already scummy place worse. I'm thinking Biff's in Back to the Future II. MAYBE if we legalized sports betting first and opened a really cool sports book that could do it but I still worry about the caliber of people

It's bad news bears. For some level of hope, there is this:

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Mavericks CEO Rick Welts said he is considering sites on the downtown's southern edge for a new 50-acre entertainment complex, weighing public safety and other factors.

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I don't know what "southern edge" means though. What they should have done, that some pushed for a few years back, is to repurpose the State Fairgrounds. Has to be one of the most underutilized large pieces of land of any downtown or adjacent downtown area in the country. Such a waste of space.

Story is paywalled, but the hits keep coming...



https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2026/01/06/comerica-weighs-potential-layoffs-after-shareholders-approve-fifth-third-merger/

drewser95 said:

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Story is paywalled, but the hits keep coming...



https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2026/01/06/comerica-weighs-potential-layoffs-after-shareholders-approve-fifth-third-merger/

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It was already pretty well known Comerica would be leaving or downsizing at the tower. The currently building owner has already developed plans to convert some floors to hotel rooms and 240 residential units. This will be the prevailing trend in downtown going forward, which is already underway, which is conversion of these B vintage buildings to partial multi-family, which if done well, will help salvage the downtown stigma some.

The National just announced it is headed for foreclosure this week as well, when it rains it pours…

I laughed at that headline "Comerica weighs layoffs"….as it came the day after corporate told all 7-8,000 employees to not go into the office and sit by their computer for 4 days and wait for a possible HR layoff call. The fourth day is Monday so they didn't even have the decency to not extend it through a weekend.

Frisco office took a major hit. I have yet to hear the numbers of job loss in downtown Dallas. But 5/3 and comerica have not announced if they truly plan to leave downtown altogether as far as I know.

The WSJ article on the Comerica purchase is confusing. I guess Fifth Third already has an office in Comerica Tower that has 320 employees? So it says they haven't decided if they are going to close that office after the merger. However, I can't tell if the 320 employees is Fifth Third office leasing space inside Comerica or if they are saying there are only 320 Comerica employees in that tower which obviously seems wrong.

I worked in the Comerica building for 5 years. The best floor is 52, with the ceiling sky lights. That was the best office of my career.