Frontier Communications is the latest in a growing roster of companies relocating their corporate headquarters to Dallas-Fort Worth.
So far this year, 14 companies made the move to North Texas, with California-based Kelly-Moore Paint Co. and artificial intelligence firm Inbenta relocating corporate headquarters. Two others, global tech firm McAfee Corp. and remodeling company West Shore Homes, set up regional headquarters.
In total, North Texas is home to two dozen Fortune 500 companies – with half of those coming from outside the region. Even corporate stalwart AT&T, a staple on the Dallas skyline, moved to the city in 2008 from San Antonio. American Airlines, the dominant airline at DFW International Airport, relocated to Fort Worth in 1979 from New York City.
Mike Rosa, senior vice president of the Dallas Regional Chamber, said he thinks D-FW’s business attraction is unlike any other U.S. city.
“There really hasn’t been a metropolitan regional economy that has had the growth component in jobs and companies locating headquarters like the D-FW area,” Rosa said. “When you layer that in with the run that Texas has been on over that same period of time, it really has been remarkable.
Here are other notable corporate relocations:
Health care
McKesson Corp., an Irving-based pharmaceutical distribution company, moved from San Francisco to North Texas half a decade ago. With Exxon Mobil’s recent headquarters move to the Houston area, McKesson takes over as the largest public company based in D-FW. Its revenue for fiscal 2023 exceeded $276 billion.
Brian Tyler, the company’s CEO who was already based in Irving, said at the time that the motivation behind moving was to increase efficiency by placing its employees and executives in the same hubs.
In 2017, San Diego-based care staffing firm AMN Healthcare placed its co-headquarters in Dallas, citing a “fantastic labor market” and “progressive health care environment” as two of the biggest reasons. It has since made Dallas its headquarters.
In 2004, investor-owned hospital company Tenet Health moved its headquarters from Santa Barbara. It anchored downtown Dallas’ Fountain Place Tower for years before moving to its existing headquarters to Farmers Branch in 2019 in a cost-cutting move.
Finance
In conjunction with its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade, financial firm Charles Schwab moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Westlake in 2021. Like other headquarters moves, two Schwab executives already lived in Texas.
At the time, the company said it could save $2 billion in its North Texas move by getting rid of overlapping jobs, real estate and other overhead. Last month, Schwab announced plans to cut jobs and close or downsize offices to further reduce operating costs.
Fourteen years before Schwab’s move, banking giant Comerica and then-CEO Ralph Babb shocked Detroit when he announced the company was moving to North Texas. As the company was looking to grow, it said it needed a more diverse local economy.
By 2008, half of the company’s annual revenue came from Michigan, making the move a significant risk. However, it marked a turning point for Comerica as it avoided many of Michigan’s pitfalls like significant revenue declines in 2008, and in turn, saw its net profit shift dramatically upwards.
Other recent finance firms to move to D-FW include Canyon Partners’ relocation to Dallas from Los Angeles last year and Fisher Investments’ move to Plano in March from Washington state. Both companies said state taxes and business-friendly practices prompted their moves.
Engineering
D-FW is now home to the three largest engineering design firms in the nation – Fluor, Jacobs and AECOM. And all relocated from California.
Fluor started the Texas migration in 2005 when it announced its move to Las Colinas in Irving from Aliso Viejo. Jacobs made the trek in 2016, moving its corporate hub from Pasadena to Dallas’ Harwood District. AECOM followed suit in 2021 with its move from Los Angeles to Dallas’ Galleria Tower One. They all said they were drawn to D-FW because of a deep talent pool.
The three firms have designed extensive infrastructure projects in Texas.
Real estate
Global property company CBRE moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas in 2020, citing the importance of the city to its long-term corporate future. In March, the company announced it would shift its headquarters to the Park District building in Uptown Dallas, which overlooks Klyde Warren Park.
Landsea Homes was next in line to move from its Los Angeles home to Dallas in March. Like others before him, CEO John Ho said logistical advantages, Texas’ workforce and a lower cost of living were among the most important reasons to make Dallas the company’s new home.
Though the company has not built homes in North Texas, it said it is hoping to break into the Houston and Dallas markets soon. In August, it purchased 84 single-family home sites in the Lariat master-planned community in Liberty Hill, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Austin.
Why D-FW?
Companies from across the country are attracted to D-FW because of its easy access to other important markets through air travel, a readily available labor market, a diverse economy and a bright future, according to Rosa. With a wide variety of businesses already in the area he said the region’s focus may soon shift to biotech and life sciences as its next big sector.
“Because we’ve got a technology base here that complements headquarters, manufacturing and logistics, we’re seeing convergence among tech sectors, artificial intelligence, life sciences, telecommunications, all kinds of things are coming together here,” Rosa said.
Veteran Texas economist Ray Perryman predicts Texas will add over 1.3 million jobs by 2027, with about a third of those being created in Dallas-Fort Worth. D-FW is the nation’s fourth-largest metro area with just under 8 million residents, trailing only New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Rosa and others expect D-FW to overtake Chicago.
“It could be just five or six years away that we become the third largest market,” Rosa said. “We have so much going for us and that’s really powerful. So I think we’re going to stay on this good run for a while.”
