How Southern tax paradise with worker-first culture exploded into a billionaire-funded financial boomtown

The Texas city of Dallas has emerged as a financial boomtown, with major companies flocking to the southern city.

The city center skyline has changed dramatically in recent years, as Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab now own a significant portion of the city’s real estate.

Investors and financiers who have moved to Dallas from the East and West Coasts point to the several competitive advantages the area offers.

House prices are low, there is room to build new offices and the area is also close to one of the country’s largest airports.

Managers also appreciate the state’s low taxes, little regulation of business and others who say The Wall Street Journal They find it friendlier and more approachable.

The location of Goldman Sachs Group’s new campus following a groundbreaking in Dallas, Texas in 2023

Data shows that employment in investment banking and securities in Texas has grown 111 percent over the past two decades.

Since the pandemic, the number has increased by 27 percent, compared to 16 percent and 5 percent in New York.

The number of people employed in the financial sector in Texas has increased 13 percent since 2019, compared to just 2 percent in New York and 3 percent nationally.

Dallas also now ranks second, behind New York City, among metropolitan areas in the number of workers employed in the financial sector.

Other cities in the Sunbelt also saw growth. According to the data, the number of people employed in the financial sector in Florida has increased by nearly 15 percent since 2019.

While in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bank of America is also based, more than eight percent of employees work in the financial sector.

For comparison, Phoenix has 6.9 percent, Dallas has 6.8 percent and New York has 6.5 percent.

New York native and Goldman partner Aasem Khalil told the outlet, “Dallas want you to love Texas. People here don’t see success as a zero-sum game.”

Rebecca Kral, who moved to the region to work in financial communications, told the WSJ she was shocked by the way conversations started with her personal job, rather than her job.

Last year, Goldman Sachs announced a $500 million campus spanning 800,000 square feet

Ross Perot Jr., chairman of Hillwood Development Co LLC, from right, John Waldron, president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Eric Johnson, mayor of Dallas, at a groundbreaking ceremony for Goldman Sachs’ new Dallas campus

She said that while the intensity of work is still there, people need a better work-life balance, which promotes efficiency.

Kral adds: ‘It’s easier to tell a customer I’m going to have dinner with my kids and then come back.’

Ray Perryman, president of the Perryman Group, an economic research and analysis firm, told the WSJ: ‘Wall Street remains the center of the investment universe, but Y’all Street is quickly gaining ground.’

JPMorgan Chase has more than 31,000 employees in Texas, which is more than the number of employees in New York State, which is 28,300.

The southern state currently employs about 12,700 workers on a 50-acre site in suburban Plano.

The complex consists of four buildings and covers a total of 1.4 million square meters of office space, which has doubled since its opening in 2017.

Andy Rabin, who oversees the firm’s investment banking operations in the Southwest, added: “You can do the same work you do in New York, but in a different location.”

Dallas also now ranks second only to New York City among metro areas in the number of workers employed in financial sectors.

Last year, Goldman Sachs announced a $500 million campus spanning 800,000 square feet.

Mayor Eric Johnson said his priority was to make the city the location for the new campus, over other competing cities.

He offered about $18 million in grants and property tax breaks to secure the new building.

Asset management firm Fisher Investments recently moved its headquarters from Washington to Plano.

The move came after the state Supreme Court approved a new capital gains tax on the wealthiest residents to fund education programs.

Founder Ken Fisher said, “Texas is more of a mindset than anything else. That mindset of futurism that ‘We have a problem, but we can solve it.’

Such companies have created well-paying jobs. The Goldman deal has created at least 5,000 jobs with an average salary of at least $116,000.

John Waldron, President and Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs, said, “We look forward to Goldman Sachs’s thriving future in Dallas and to partnering with the local community for many years to come.”