AT&T Starts Building $1.35 Billion Plano Headquarters

AT&T is hanging up on downtown Dallas, one fiber line at a time.

The telecom giant started construction Thursday on a new global headquarters spanning 54 acres and 2.2 million square feet in Plano, Texas, the company said ^[1]. The Real Deal put the price at $1.35 billion and said the campus will hold 10,000 employees pulled from offices in Dallas, Irving and Plano ^[2].

What is getting built

• The plan calls for seven office buildings, three parking garages and a welcome center at 5400 Legacy Drive, according to The Real Deal ^[2].
• AT&T said an approximately 250-foot working cell tower will rise on the campus and double as a local landmark ^[1].
• The company expects its first employees to move in during the second half of 2028 ^[1].
• By our math, the $1.35 billion budget works out to about $614 per square foot, and the campus gives each of the 10,000 workers roughly 220 square feet ^[1][2].

But the new campus opens a hole downtown. AT&T's exit will leave about 2 million square feet of Dallas offices vacant, including its home at Whitacre Tower, a 37-story building at 208 South Akard Street where its lease runs until 2031, The Real Deal reported ^[2]. Trepp has warned that the tower's commercial mortgage-backed loan could face default if owners Pacific Elm Properties and Dundon Capital Partners cannot replace AT&T before then ^[2]. AT&T's real estate chief, Michael Ford, said the company is still working through an exit plan ^[2].

What it means for you

A single tenant this large can set rents for a whole submarket. Plano landlords, apartment owners and retail centers near Legacy Drive stand to gain 10,000 daily workers starting in 2028 ^[1][2]. Downtown Dallas faces the reverse: if you own or lend on office space there, expect more competition for tenants as roughly 2 million square feet comes back on the market ^[2]. Anyone holding CMBS bonds should check exposure to single-tenant towers with leases ending before 2032.

Zoom out

Big employers are trading older downtown towers for newer suburban campuses they control. AT&T's move shows the winner and loser can sit just 20 miles apart ^[2].