(Bloomberg) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is seeking a new office campus in Dallas that could become the Wall Street bank’s largest presence in the United States outside of its Manhattan headquarters.
Executives are in advanced talks with developers as the company seeks expansion space in North Texas, a state known for its steakhouses, high-end retail and low taxes. The move will increase Goldman's presence there to rival and eventually replace its old Jersey City outpost, which looms over much of the local skyline, according to people familiar with the situation. It is said that there is a possibility that it will happen.
The plan highlights how CEO David Solomon is geographically restructuring the U.S. business in an effort to cut costs, moving thousands of jobs to cheaper regions. There is. The bank has been adding offices and employees to a number of strategic locations, including Dallas, over the years, but the pandemic has put a damper on those efforts as executives learn how viable it is to run their businesses remotely. Activated.
“While we continue to grow our presence in the Dallas area, we cannot comment on future expansion plans at this time,” said company spokeswoman Maeve DuBarry.
Goldman's other strategic locations around the world include Salt Lake City, Singapore, Warsaw and Bangalore (formerly Bangalore). Together, these locations already work for more than a third of the company's 40,500 employees. Like many other Wall Street companies, the bank has been developing expansion plans in recent months in low-tax Florida states such as West Palm Beach, adding hundreds of jobs there. Some senior executives are lobbying to push this further.
Cost is the driving force, but the Wall Street giant is betting it will have an advantage on recruiting as well. Not everyone wants to live in a densely populated financial capital like New York. It may also be easier to attract and retain talent when there aren't many big Wall Street banks just a few blocks away.
North Texas is positioning itself as an oasis for financial and technology companies, with tax breaks and luxury housing. Charles Schwab moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Westlake, a wealthy Dallas suburb where Fidelity already has a campus. Vanguard Group announced it will open an office in the Dallas-Fort Worth area early next year. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has built a campus near Plano. Like Florida, Texas has no state income tax.
The Dallas office market, which has about 195 million square feet (18.1 million square meters) of leasable space, had a vacancy rate of 24% in the first quarter, according to brokerage CBRE Group. The average asking rent in Dallas was $27 per square foot. That compares to $82 per square foot in midtown Manhattan, according to CBRE.
Goldman is looking for less than 1 million square feet of land in Dallas, one of the people said. For comparison, the bank's global headquarters at 200 West Street in Manhattan is just over 2 million square feet.
new jersey tower
Across the river in New Jersey, Goldman built the Cesar Pelli-designed tower in the early 2000s, and originally planned to be the only occupant of the roughly 1.5 million-square-foot building. Ta. But in recent years, Jersey City's skyscrapers have lost some of their luster.
Goldman occupies approximately 870,000 square feet of space at the property, according to KoStar Group. About 250,000 square feet is available for rent, and more space has been leased to other tenants over the past year, according to CoStar data.
Even if Goldman's employees weren't leaving the New York area in droves, the firm's presence in the New York area would be limited as the bank has expanded into other regions and its workforce has increased by about 20% in just the past three years. Some of the feeling has been lost.
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