DALLAS — Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Dallas Business Journal here.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Hunt Realty Investments and Hillwood Urban broke ground on the financial giant's $500 million campus in Dallas on Tuesday, marking what Mayor Eric Johnson called a "new beginning" for the city.
The 800,000-square-foot building, being constructed on three acres on the southeast corner of the broader North End Development, will be composed of two wings, with the tallest being 14 floors. The building will serve as regional base for New York-based Goldman Sachs, housing 5,000 employees when it opens in 2027.
"[Goldman] went from being a small shop in a big city to being a financial giant known the world over," Johnson said of the company, whose history dates back to1869. "That's because Goldman Sachs knows where to put its money. And right now the smart money is on Dallas, Texas — a land of genuine opportunity where attracting big business is frankly becoming business as usual."
An $18 million economic incentives deal offered and accepted by Goldman Sachs for its expansion in Dallas is among the highest in the nation last year for a project of its type. The incentives agreement, approved by Dallas City Council in June 2022, is contingent on the company creating or retaining 5,000 jobs in the city.
The new campus will consolidate Goldman's employees in one place. Currently, the company has about 4,000 employees in the region located at the Trammell Crow Center in Dallas, an office in Irving and an office in Richardson.
"With the completion of this new campus, we are very excited to bring the majority of our people together in one unified spot," said John Waldron, president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs.
The firm also plans to hire new employees and relocate employees from other regions to the Dallas campus in order to hit the 5,000-employee target, said Aasem Khalil, partner at the financial firm and head of the Dallas office.
Designed by Henning Larsen Architects in New York, the new building will feature spaces for employees to collaborate. It will also feature an on-site cafe, a fitness center, back-up childcare, underground parking, conferencing spaces and access to a variety of outdoor gardens and terraces.
Over the last couple of years as the project has come to fruition, Johnson said he has read in numerous reports Goldman's decision to expand in Dallas described as a "bet" on the city. However, he said he disagrees with that characterization.
"Let's be real clear about something and let's be real: This is no bet," Johnson said. "No one is sticking their neck out here in Dallas. This isn't a bunch of wildcatters indulging in wild fantasies in the Wild West. Sure, we still dream big and we still like to don our Stetsons from time to time, but we know what we're doing here in Dallas. Dallas isn't a gamble. This city is a sure thing with a real deal, and my friends I'm here to tell you that Dallas has arrived."
In addition to expanding its workforce at the new campus, Waldron said Goldman will continue to invest in the community in Dallas. More than 700 businesses from Dallas have participated in the company's 10,000 Small Businesses initiative since 2014, he said. The program provides entrepreneurs with free practical business education, business support services, and pathways to capital.
Goldman has made a $10 million investment in North Texas to support its "One Million Black Women" initiative, an effort to support Black female entrepreneurs. That includes a $250,000 grant to On The Road Lending, an Irving-based nonprofit that provides affordable auto loans. The investments will also help provide Black women with the opportunity to gain skills and earn income in the auto repair industry, he said.
"As we expand our footprint here in Dallas, we have every intention of working hand in hand with the city and the community leaders and building on our long history of local partnerships," Waldron said.
Goldman's three-acre campus on North Field Street, developed by Hillwood Urban, is the first phase of a larger 11-acre development spearheaded by Hunt Realty Investments.
Ross Perot Jr., chairman of Hillwood Urban, said the development has been years in the making and sets the city up for the future as its population expands. He noted that some statistical forecasts have the Dallas-Fort Worth region's population doubling to 16 million by 2050. Goldman's project will help attract new talent to the region, he said.
"You're refreshing the community," Perot said. "You're refreshing our business base. You're refreshing us with these incredible people you're attracting from all over the world to move into our city that will make us an even bigger city."
Like Perot, Hunt Realty Investments CEO Chris Kleinert said Goldman's campus will serve as an anchor for many years to come. He said he and his team were "blown away" when Goldman executives approached them about their vision for the project.
"We were equally energized and thinking about the positive impact that a new downtown office for a company with the global stature, reputation and financial strength of Goldman Sachs could have on the city of Dallas," Kleinert said. "A project like this could easily have ended up in the suburbs. But to the immense credit of the Goldman Sachs leadership team, the company had a vision for something different and for that we are truly grateful."
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