WHY ARE HEADQUARTERS MOVING TO NORTH TEXAS?

Texas is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state. Forbes magazine reports that in 2021, some 62 companies relocated their HQs to Texas from 17 states and three countries, and many chose North Texas to call home.

What follows large corporations? More businesses.

On a recent episode of Welcome to the Top Bill Cox, CCAR 2022 REALTOR® of the year and principal in McKinney-based Carey Cox Company, a commercial real estate firm specializing in McKinney and Collin County, explained:

“There are the Toyotas, the Boeings, the State Farms. But you also have ancillary companies moving their headquarters to North Texas to service those larger corporations, some of those that you may not have heard of. Those that provide backup help and provide ancillary services for the bigger companies. [Companies with] 20 to 50 employees and 50 to 100 employees that have a pay scale of $60,000 to $90,000.

The Metroplex is getting smaller. There was a time when from

McKinney to Dallas, there weren’t many streetlights. Now you’re in the Metroplex … and Grayson County, the southern part of Grayson County, is now part of the Metroplex. And that’s happened within the last 10 years.”

Cox attributes the area’s commercial growth to several factors, the leading of which is the area’s educated workforce.

“The ability to hire employees is key in relocating companies from other parts of the country, both East and West Coast. We are very blessed to be where we are and to have the employment base that we have.

“Education is another important conversation we have when talking with companies considering North Texas to relocate. It’s important to have an educated workforce. And we’re very blessed to have institutions in our area that fulfill that need.”

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon echoed that sentiment to hundreds of members of the Dallas Citizens Council, saying, “One of the things that makes Texas so incredible is you have an incredible secondary education system here, both public and private,” Solomon said.

“It creates an enormous pipeline of talented young individuals. People come down here to go to school, and they actually want to stay.”[1]

Location is another factor that attracts businesses to North Texas. Not only is the cost of living, quality of life and the top-rated public school system enough to make the educated workforce stick around, North Texas’ location is also ideal for both national and international travel. “We’re in the middle part of the country, easily accessible from both coasts,” said Cox.

Corporations and employees enjoy the reduced crime and increased personal safety our communities offer. A recent Goodhire study used FBI data to “assess property, violent and societal crimes and looked at each city by the rate of offenses per year. The study assigned a total rank that looked at crimes against persons and crimes against property at 40% and crimes against society at 20%. Background checks were also used to analyze the cities.”[2]

On the Goodhire list of safest cities, McKinney was ranked the second safest city in America, and Frisco was ranked fourth.

What is ahead?

“As long as companies are able to hire employees and to move to the area, that appeal will be there to locate in North Texas.” When asked about the future, Cox comments that we may see a slowdown but not a stoppage of growth. “The momentum we have for new job creation was really strong right now, stronger than probably anywhere in the country.”

[1] https://preview.therealdeal.com/texas/ dallas/2022/12/08/goldman-sachs-tapped-dallas-for-itsengineering-talent/

[2] https://localprofile.com/2022/09/09/mckinney-andfrisco-texas-among-safest/

Written by: Zach Cohen