$1.3B AT&T HQ set for Plano From the cover
Diving deeper
The gist
The $20 million economic development grant is the largest ever provided by Plano. The AT&T grant is split into two $10 million incentives, one tied to the campus redevelopment and one tied to job creation. One agreement details a 65% property tax rebate that would last for 25 years. AT&T could choose to begin the rebate period Jan. 1 of 2029, 2030 or 2031, according to city documents. The second agreement will give AT&T the rst $4 million from the grant after retention of the rst 4,000 employees and would be required to reach 10,000 employees by the end of 2039 to receive the full grant. “We’re connecting them with the right resources to succeed and create these jobs for not only our community’s residents, but our neighboring communities,” Plano Economic Development Director Michael Talley said. “That’s 10,000 people being on campus, going to restaurants, going to happy hour and grabbing co ee. It’s kind of like a snowball e ect as far as what the impact could be.”
AT&T is packing up its downtown Dallas headquarters and moving 20 miles north to a new campus in Plano. The company announced the move in January, and Plano City Council approved $20 million in nancial incentives Feb. 23 to facilitate the new headquarters. The former Electronic Data Systems campus at the site at 5400 Legacy Drive is set for demolition. AT&T’s relocation is the rst major corporate headquarters redevelopment project in Plano, McDonald said. “This location will provide us with the necessary room to cost e ectively consolidate all Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex administrative space, including our three largest locations in Central Dallas, Plano and Irving, and create a corporate campus designed for collaboration, innovation and engagement,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a statement.
Top employers
Employment JPMorgan Chase
Projected employment
11,261
Bank of America
6,566
Capital One Finance 5,649
Toyota Motor North America 4,938 PepsiCo Foods North America 3,759 Ericsson 3,346
AT&T: 2039 projection
10,000
AT&T: 2029 projection 4,000
SOURCE: CITY OF PLANO COMMUNITY IMPACT
Headquarters
The timeline
Building history
2026 AT&T announces it is relocating its global headquarters to 5400 Legacy Drive
1985 Electronic Data Systems headquarters is built
2018 Current owners NexPoint acquire the site
2023 Life sciences redevelopment, the Texas Research Quarter, is approved for the campus
2008 The campus is sold to Hewlett-Packard
Late 2028 AT&T partially occupies the campus
The former Electronic Data Systems campus is located near Tennyson Parkway and Democracy Drive.
COURTESY CITY OF PLANO
SOURCES: CITY OF PLANO, AT&T COMMUNITY IMPACT
The backstory
McDonald said the way the building was built made a demolition the best option for redevelopment. “Just with the size of this campus, it had some challenges especially in a post-pandemic leasing world,” he said. “We see campuses being built today with all the walkable amenities. ... When you have something that customized, that [Perot] put in place in the late ‘80s, it makes it very di cult for other companies to reuse that same facility.”
the headquarters has sat vacant since 2018, when it was acquired by current owners NexPoint. A previous plan approved in 2023 would have seen the site redeveloped as part of a 200-acre life sciences district called the Texas Research Quarter. Council approved a zoning change Feb. 23 reverting the property back to its original zoning from the previous development plan zoning for the Texas Research Quarter. A NexPoint spokesperson declined to comment on future plans for the Texas Research Quarter.
Ross Perot oversaw the original development of the EDS campus in the 1980s. The project helped fuel “long-term economic growth” in the area, city o cials said. McDonald called the EDS building one of three campuses that “really started Legacy business park,” along with the JCPenney and Frito Lay campuses. The city is set to install a pair of statues honor- ing Perot near the Shops at Legacy later this year. EDS was sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2008, and
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