AT&T announced Monday that it's officially moving its global headquarters from Downtown Dallas to Plano in the next three years.

AT&T President and CEO John Stankey said the decision came after a year of deliberation and was made to invest in the company's employee experience.

The new headquarters is planned to be built at 5400 Legacy Drive, which would be in proximity to Plano's popular shopping and food district, Legacy West.

Stankey said the new headquarters will span across 54 acres of land and the location provides "the necessary room to cost effectively 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."

For more than two years, Bharath Venkateswaran has enjoyed working at AT&T's downtown Dallas headquarters, but now, he's excited about the company's plan to build a new 54-acre global campus near Plano's Legacy district. 

"I think that's going to help a lot of the workers who live in the suburban areas with families," he said. "My family lives in Allen, so it's much closer than Downtown Dallas."

"I think a lot of businesses are already moving over there, so it will be good for AT&T to be over there," said Marcus Codrescu, an AT&T employee. "I was also a little sad because I like downtown and I like the Discovery District."  

AT&T's headquarters had been in Dallas since 2008. Despite the move, the company said it still believes the DFW metroplex is the right place to continue to thrive.

Dallas mayor and city manager release statements on the move

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert shared statements on AT&T's decision to move from the city. Both acknowledged the move was a sign that the company needed more space and a reflection of the company's shift in culture.

"Our city's unique economic strengths are what attracted AT&T to our urban core in 2008, and Dallas has become a global economic powerhouse since then," Johnson said. "But as we worked to retain AT&T, it became clear that its current leaders preferred a large horizontal, suburban-style campus rather than the skyscrapers that define our city center."

Johnson went on to highlight some of the city's recent economic accomplishments, including the incoming new Goldman Sachs campus and new financial sector.

Bizor Tolbert echoed Johnson in saying how Dallas has been a great city for businesses and praised the city's successes.

"Business leaders have praised our successes in our urban core, which include expanded police presence and our remarkable success relocating people experiencing homelessness. But ultimately, this was a decision that came down to AT&T's desire for a new horizontal location with significant acreage for development. AT&T's transition will be gradual, and the company will remain part of our city's fabric in the years ahead," she said in a statement.

"AT&T has been a good corporate partner to the City of Dallas for nearly two decades. Since relocating its global headquarters to Downtown in 2008, AT&T has helped anchor Dallas's emergence as a global business center, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the urban core, and supported thousands of jobs held by Dallas residents," said Jennifer Scripps, the president and CEO of Downtown Dallas, Inc. "The company's announcement does not change our conviction that Downtown Dallas is one of the best places in the country to do business ... While this moment is challenging, it also creates space for new opportunities and continued reinvention."

For downtown business owners like Ari Lowenstein, who owns Ari's Pantry, an Italian gourmet market, the move could mean fewer customers. But he says perspective matters.

"I had seven stores in airports across Europe on 9/11. That was an OMG moment," said Lowenstein. "When COVID hit, and everything had to stop, and I was in the wholesale business, the gift industry, that was an OMG moment. This is not an OMG moment." 

He says one of the biggest challenges downtown remains the unhoused population. 

"It is easy to turn someone having a great experience downtown to suddenly being a very negative experience," Lowenstein said. "With the exception of that, I don't think downtown is losing its appeal." 

He's optimistic about the future.   

"The convention center, I think, is supposed to open in 2029, and when those conventions come to town, it is a massive impact for all the downtown businesses," said Lowenstein.

The target date for AT&T's new space is slated for the second half of 2028, company officials said.