For years, Dallas has been building a rival to Wall Street, firm by firm. This month, the pitch goes live.
The Texas Stock Exchange, the first to be built and based in the state, will begin trading with a phased rollout; test stocks first, corporate listings expected by the fall. As modest as this opening sounds, it is one of the most concrete signs of an ambition the city has chased for years: to turn Dallas into an alternative to Wall Street.
The bet lands at an awkward time for the city. Even as Dallas courts the world’s biggest financial institutions, it has lost some of its most recognizable names downtown. AT&T, based in the city since 2008, said in January that it was moving its global headquarters to the suburbs. The Mavericks and Stars said they might follow the telecom giant’s lead and leave downtown as well. And Neiman Marcus plans to close its flagship store downtown after occupying it for more than a century.
Those last three announcements, which came in the span of about 25 hours, prompted ire and disappointment from many Dallas residents.
Mayor Eric Johnson of Dallas told the City Council in early June that “the knives are out for our city.”
Business and city leaders, who have spent years trying to revitalize downtown, are also confronting a problem greater than any single departure; a core of aging office towers that have been emptying for years. Their answer, increasingly, is to sell Dallas as the country’s next financial capital.
The exchange has raised at least $250 million as the effective centerpiece for “Y’all Street,” a play on Wall Street used to describe the financial hub that has taken root in North Texas.
Mr. Johnson led a delegation of business and civic leaders from North Texas to New York City in April to meet with business executives to promote Y’all Street. The delegation had a simple pitch: When you’re ready to expand, consider Dallas. The trip also included a stop on Wall Street, where Mr. Johnson rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
Between 2000 and the end of last year, the Dallas-Fort Worth area grew to about 393,000 jobs in finance from 212,000, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Goldman Sachs, the investment banking firm, is in the midst of building its second-largest office in the United States in Dallas. The campus, which is expected to be completed near downtown in 2028, will have space for more than 5,000 employees. The company broke ground on its expansion in 2023 after the Dallas City Council approved an $18 million economic incentives deal that included a business personal property tax abatement for the company.
Morgan Stanley may also expand in Dallas, a move that could bring about 4,800 jobs and a new office to the area, according to a draft plan submitted to the Dallas City Council that would include a tax abatement. Morgan Stanley declined to comment about the proposed plan.
Companies that have relocated to Texas or expanded in the state have done so, in part, because of the economic benefit. Texas does not have a state income tax, and Dallas does not collect a city income tax.
Scotiabank also held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in February for a new regional hub in Dallas. It announced the expansion last year after the City Council approved an incentive agreement that included a 10-year city tax abatement and an economic development grant of $2.7 million. Scotiabank also received more than $10.7 million from the state of Texas through a performance-based grant awarded to businesses relocating or expanding in Texas.
While the Texas Stock Exchange will have a slow rollout, Dallas city leaders are hopeful it will serve as a catalyst to bring more business to the city and ease the sting from the recent departures.
Cullum Clark, an adjunct economics professor at Southern Methodist University and the director of the George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, said the timing of the announcements from the Mavericks, the Stars and Neiman Marcus was a shock for residents in downtown Dallas.
The reasons for the departures or threats to leave downtown Dallas are not all the same. The parent company of Neiman Marcus said it would close its downtown store on Sept. 30 and concentrate its Dallas business at another store in NorthPark Center. Dallas city leaders said that despite efforts to keep AT&T downtown, it was clear that the company wanted a larger space in Plano, a suburb north of Dallas.
The decision from Neiman Marcus to leave downtown was the “least surprising” announcement, Mr. Clark said, adding that department stores across the country have been struggling.
“Sports teams are different,” he said. “Before those announcements, it certainly seemed reasonable to imagine that a new Mavs arena could work in downtown, could be economically successful, could attract people from all over the region to games.”
During a public comment period at a City Council meeting in early June, Sana Syed, a downtown Dallas resident, said news of the departures from downtown made for “a painful and embarrassing week for this city.”
“What are we doing?” Ms. Syed said. “Downtowns rarely die from a single blow. They fade when vision is replaced by complacency, when short-term politics outweigh long-term stewardship, and when each loss is treated as an isolated event rather than a warning.”
The departures of the Mavericks and the Stars from downtown Dallas have not been finalized. The Stars have moved forward with plans to move north to Plano, where city leaders approved the first steps toward a new arena for the hockey team, while the Mavericks have only indicated they are eyeing a new property.
But even if the teams did end up moving, Mr. Clark said, Dallas has already built an impressive financial sector and is a significant part of why Texas is now home to the most Fortune 500 companies in the United States, narrowly edging out California.
“When it comes to attracting corporate relocations or very significant new employment centers,” Mr. Clark said, “the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has clearly been far and away No. 1 of the Texas metros over the last decade or decade and a half.”
That trend continues. During a meeting on June 24, the Dallas City Council unanimously voted to approve a plan that would provide a tax incentive for Morgan Stanley to set up a new office in Dallas.
Adam Bazaldua, a City Council member, said that the vote was coming at a crucial time for Dallas.
“We have absolutely experienced ebbs and flows of businesses coming and going, but I don’t believe that has varied from market trends across the country,” Mr. Bazaldua said. “We are still in business, and we are still competing.”
