Goldman’s US$500 million Texas expansion takes shape in Dallas

[DALLAS] Goldman Sachs’ US$500 million bet on Texas is poised to put a stamp on the Dallas skyline.

The storied investment bank’s new office complex is ascending out of the ground at a noisy construction site between the American Airlines Center and the Perot Museum in uptown Dallas.

By the end of next year, the exterior of the three-acre campus, being erected by the development arms of two Texas billionaire families, will be complete. The bank will take another year to build out the interior and then move in employees sometime in 2028.

Goldman has ambitious plans for relocations, pushing managers to leave high-cost areas such as New York and London for Dallas and Salt Lake City. The bank currently employs about 4,500 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and will have room for over 5,000 workers at the 800,000-square-foot complex.

“We have been in Dallas for nearly 60 years, but our new campus cements the city’s position as a critical global hub for the firm,” said Goldman Sachs vice-chairman Rob Kaplan, who is based in Dallas. “The new location will help us better serve clients in the US and around the world and offer a convening centre for the Dallas community.”

Dallas has evolved into an “epicentre for financial activity”, according to Christopher Kleinert, chief executive officer of Hunt Realty Investments, which is building the Goldman property with Ross Perot Jr’s Hillwood Development.

“You have got the migration of financial institutions coming from the coast,” Kleinert said. “You have got a tremendous talent base here.”

Texas officials have long courted Wall Street by promising a low cost of living and a cooperative government. The state passed laws this year to strengthen its new business courts and lure incorporations from Delaware. Governor Greg Abbott rang the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closing bell this week at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, to celebrate the launch of the exchange’s new Texas outfit.

Big Finance is responding. Bank of America is taking 238,000 square feet in a new tower less than a quarter-mile away from the Goldman site. JPMorgan Private Bank’s offices look out at the area across Klyde Warren Park. Charles Schwab and Vanguard Group have built out expanded operations elsewhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

The NYSE moved its electronic exchange to Dallas from Chicago. Nasdaq is planning a regional headquarters in the city, while the upstart Texas Stock Exchange has drawn investments from Citadel Securities and BlackRock ahead of a launch early next year.

Still, New York has a firm grip on the industry. Goldman’s headquarters remains in New York and JPMorgan Chase is preparing to open its new US$3 billion headquarters in the city.

Housing costs are rising in major Texas metro areas, threatening the state’s affordability pitch, according to research from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

“How do you continue to have price points of housing available for all, how do you ensure that there’s quality education?” Kleinert said. “It’s important that we retain our relative affordability.” BLOOMBERG