Dallas City Council approves $18.5M in tax incentives in attempt to bring Morgan Stanley to Uptown area
Dallas city leaders officially approved a major tax incentive in a bid to bring investment bank Morgan Stanley's next major operations hub to the Uptown area.
On Wednesday, Dallas City Council members voted unanimously to approve the $18.5 million tax incentive offering. In a statement following the vote, Mayor Eric Johnson said such a hub would be a boon for the city.
"Now, Morgan Stanley is considering Dallas for a new, large-scale U.S. operational hub that would bring with it over $780 million in capital investment and create up to 4,800 new, high-paying jobs," Johnson said. "Y'all Street is more than a slogan. My Administration is intent on growing Dallas's financial services sector in order to power a thriving economy that benefits all Dallas residents."
CBS News Texas political reporter Jack Fink notes the investment bank is also considering the Atlanta, Georgia area as a location for the hub. As of publication, Morgan Stanley has not shared a statement indicating its intention.
If Morgan Stanley chooses Dallas for the hub, the company would build a new office located at 2401 McKinney Avenue, just north of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. However, the investment bank would start operations at a temporary regional office, located south of the freeway at 1445 Ross Avenue.
Morgan Stanley, headquartered in New York City, currently operates offices worldwide, with offices in 42 countries and employing more than 80,000 people.
The bid to bring the Morgan Stanley hub to Dallas comes as other major names are opting to either set up new operations elsewhere in the metroplex or migrate out of the downtown Dallas area. Plano, located about 21 miles northeast of Dallas, has attracted telecom giant AT&T and Korean tech chaebol Samsung.
AT&T is currently headquartered in downtown Dallas, but will set up its new headquarters in Plano; meanwhile, Samsung will move its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Plano, and it already has offices along Central Expressway and Legacy Drive. As of now, it's not known if Samsung will build corporate offices there or if it will build elsewhere in the city.
Both the Dallas Stars and the Dallas Mavericks are also eyeing a move north. While Mayor Johnson said relocation plans for neither team are final, both teams have taken steps to make it happen. The Stars have announced that they submitted a signed, non-binding letter of intent for a proposed mixed-use sports and entertainment district at The Shops at Willow Bend, and the Mavericks have announced that the team is pursuing the former Valley View Mall site in North Dallas for its own arena and entertainment hub. Both teams are aiming to leave the American Airlines Center in the Victory Park neighborhood.
Plano city leaders unanimously voted to pass a plan to bring the Stars to the city earlier this month. It wasn't a final approval of the arena itself, but the vote moves negotiations and planning into the next phase.
If both teams leave the arena by the end of their leases, which are currently set to expire in 2031, sports valuation expert Mike Rapkoch said the American Airlines Center could face an uncertain future.
"I think it's going to be hard if you have two active owners trying for those events," he told CBS News Texas earlier this month. "I just don't see how another event is going to come or how they're going to be able to compete."