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

The Texan city of Dallas has exploded into a financial boomtown with major corporations flocking to the southern city. 

The downtown skyline has changed dramatically in recent times with Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab now commanding serious real estate in the city.

Investors and financiers who moved to Dallas from the East and West coasts have pointed to several competitive advantages the area has. 

With lower housing costs, space to build new offices, the area is also near one of the country’s biggest airports.

Executives also appreciate the state’s low tax, low-regulation to business, and others telling The Wall Street Journal they find it friendlier and more accessible. 

The downtown skyline has changed dramatically in recent times with Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab now commanding serious real estate in the city

The site of Goldman Sachs Group's new campus following a groundbreaking ceremony in Dallas, Texas in 2023

Data shows that investment banking in Texas as well as securities employment has shot up 111 percent over the last twenty years.

It has also increased 27 percent since the pandemic, compared with 16 percent and 5 percent in New York.

The number of people employed in finance overall in Texas has climbed 13 percent since 2019, compared to just two percent in New York and 3 percent nationally.

Dallas also now ranks second to New York City among metro areas in the number of workers employed in finance-related industries.

Other cities across the Sunbelt have also seen growth, with Florida having seen a nearly 15 percent increase in the number of people employed in finance since 2019 according to the data.

While Charlotte, North Carolina, which is also home to the Bank of America, has more than eight percent of its workplace in finance.

That is compared against Phoenix with 6.9 percent, Dallas with 6.8 percent and 6.5 percent in New York.

Native New Yorker and Goldman partner Aasem Khalil told the outlet: ‘Dallasites want you to love Texas. People here don’t view success as a zero-sum game.’

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

Last year Goldman Sachs announced a $500 million campus covering 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,  during a groundbreaking ceremony for Goldman Sachs new campus in Dallas

She said that while the intensity of the work is still present, people desire a better work-life balance which encourages efficiency.

Kral added: ‘It’s easier to say to a client that I’m having dinner with my kids and will come back afterwards.’

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 gaining rapidly.'

JPMorgan Chase has over 31,000 employees in Texas, which is over the amount they have in New York state, 28,300.

In the southern state, around 12,700 employees are currently working out of a 50-acre site in the suburb of Plano.

The complex covers four buildings and stretches to 1.5 million square feet of office space, with it having doubled since it opened in 2017.

Andy Rabin, who oversees the company's investment banking in the Southwest, added: 'You can do the job you'd do in New York, but in a different location.' 

Dallas also now ranks second to New York City among metro areas in the number of workers employed in finance-related industries

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

Mayor Eric Johnson said it was his priority to make the city the site of the new campus over other competing cities. 

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

Money-management company Fisher Investments recently moved its headquarters to Plano from Washington.

The move came after the state’s Supreme Court upheld a new capital-gains tax on its wealthiest residents to fund education programs.

Founder Ken Fisher said: ‘Texas is a mindset more than it is any other thing. That mindset of futurism that, ‘We’ve got a problem, but we can take care of it.’

Such firms have brought high-paying jobs with the Goldman deal providing at least 5,000 jobs at an average salary of at least $116,000.

Goldman Sachs President and Chief Operating Officer John Waldron said: We look forward to Goldman Sachs' vibrant future in Dallas and are excited to continue partnering with the local community for many years to come.'