WHAT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REALLY WANT FROM THEIR OFFICE SPACE

For much of their history, financial service institutions in the United States opened shop in gateway cities on the East and West coasts. One main reason for this was that everyone else — from major corporations to global banks to other businesses — was there, too.

While global financial headquarters remain in places like New York City and San Francisco, they are also placing regional headquarters and operation centers in the so-called “flyover” areas. One region on many radars is Dallas-Fort Worth. The result: the growth of North Texas' “Y’all Street,” which rivals Wall Street in attracting financial services firms.

Let’s examine some of the reasons for the growing interest in North Texas.

Site Availability and Amenities

The financial services industry is competitive, and institutions consistently seek ways to showcase their differences. One useful tool to boost brand visibility is the site itself.

One must-have for a site is ample room for the company to design and build a facility that reflects its core values and services, while also recruiting and retaining skilled talent. Coastal gateway cities tend to be land-constrained with limited optimal sites. However, this isn’t the case in places like North Texas.

The DFW area provides plenty of best-in-class locations, allowing financial services institutions to design and build unique operations centers and regional headquarters. Furthermore, such facilities and campuses offer attractive on-site features while being near neighborhood amenities, both of which drive employee recruitment and retention.

Some examples include the following:

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo, headquartered in San Francisco, recently completed and consolidated its North Texas operations into a 22-acre, 850,000-square-foot regional campus at 401 W. Las Colinas Blvd. in Irving, Texas. Located about 10 miles from Dallas, Irving features Las Colinas - a self-contained urban center and environment – within the heart of the city.

Wells Fargo wanted a location to support multiple operations, which required plenty of acreage. Furthermore, its location near mixed-use destinations and additional amenities offered accessibility to entertainment (such as shows at the Toyota Factory) and nearby restaurants and shopping. Employees benefit from a short commute thanks to nearby multifamily and single-family residences and proximity to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light rail.

Bank of America

Unlike its competitor just to the west in Irving, Bank of America opted for a different location and design approach for its North Texas regional headquarters. The institution, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is leasing 230,000 square feet at the currently under-construction Bank of America Tower at Parkside in Dallas’ Uptown submarket. Located at 1919 Woodall Rodgers Freeway, this 500,000-square-foot trophy office building, with its Bank of America signage, is part of the company’s branding strategy.

This facility also attracts a different type of employee: one who wants to work in a highly active urban core. The building has a great view of the five-acre Klyde Warren Park and boasts a multitude of terraces, which help bring nature and plenty of light to the offices. The area is pedestrian-friendly, with an abundance of restaurants and food trucks within walking distance.

J.P. Morgan Chase

J.P. Morgan Chase (JMPC) chose a different strategy for its North Texas regional headquarters. Rather than locating its regional headquarters near an urban core, the New York City-based financial services institution headed to another Dallas suburb, Plano, to build its 1.5 million-square-foot campus and develop its own Main Street concept, modeled after the one in New York City.

This dedicated Main Street that runs between the office buildings, offers a food court with multiple dining options, a full-service Starbucks, a daycare facility, a wellness center and an arcade/game room. Additionally, the campus is near the 240-acre mixed-use Shops of Legacy West. The location provides plenty of room for growth; phases one and two are complete, with additional expansion planned for the third phase.

The regional headquarters is near major highways, including the Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121. This allows the company to recruit and hire skilled talent from nearby suburbs, including Plano, Frisco, Richardson and others. To date, the JPMC Plano campus houses over 13,000 employees. Furthermore, the company employs more people in the DFW region than in New York City.

What Else They Need

In addition to the above, financial services institutions are looking for the following:

Convenient geographical locations

Financial institutions require the infrastructure to transport goods and people from point A to point B. In addition to well-developed highway and transit systems, the sites must provide access to air transport.

North Texas checks these boxes through its main airports, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field. In July 2025, construction started on a new passenger terminal at McKinney National Airport (about an hour north of Dallas); commercial airline service is expected to begin in late 2026. Additionally, private passenger flights and cargo transport are offered through Alliance Airport (far North Fort Worth) and Addison Airport (north of downtown Dallas).

An added benefit is that DFW is centrally located in the United States. This means that national flights to either coast take no longer than four hours.

Pro-business environment

Many of these financial services institutions prefer ground-up or build-to-suit construction. As such, supportive zoning ordinances and entitlement processes are a must. Many North Texas towns and cities are progress-oriented, providing incentives and less red tape for zoning, permitting and other regulations.

Educated talent

One sign of a skilled working population is the number of schools in the region. Southern Methodist University (in University Park, north of downtown Dallas), the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas (in Richardson) and Collin College (with campuses throughout Collin County) provide degrees and training for area employees. The University of North Texas System also has multiple campuses, including Frisco, South Dallas, downtown Dallas and the main campus in Denton, north of Dallas.

Additionally, more educated people are relocating to and settling in the DFW region because of its relatively low cost of living, quality schools, temperate climate and good jobs. As financial service institutions select the area for branch expansions, more skilled workers will follow, increasing the amount of available educated talent.

From Wall Street to Y’all Street

Financial service institutions will remain operational in gateway cities. However, as they look elsewhere to expand operations centers, regional headquarters and other major functions, expansion decisions depend on multiple factors, including branding strategy, talent needs and space requirements.

Dallas-Fort Worth is under consideration by large and medium financial services institutions (and the businesses that service them). Land availability, business-friendly support, an abundance of skilled labor and reliable infrastructure, among other reasons, mean North Texas offers the welcoming mat for companies involved with financial services. This, in turn, is expanding Y’all Street for other interested banks and finance corporations.