Goldman Sachs won approval from the Dallas City Council to build an office tower downtown, and will receive $18 million in tax incentives in return for bringing 5,000 jobs to the city.
Among the incentives are tax abatements and job grants for the bank. Goldman agreed to create a minimum of 5,000 jobs by the end of 2028, with an average base salary of $90,000. The council previously offered tax breaks to the bank if it pursued this project.
“This is exactly the kind of company I do think we should be investing in,” said Chairwoman Cara Mendelsohn. “This is a foundational company. I think the people who are going to work there are going to help contribute not just for property tax, but they’re going to help by donating to our social services. They’re going to help our arts organizations. This is a generation of leaders for our entire city.”
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The bank will lease a minimum of 800,000 square feet of space on several acres at 2323 N. Field St, which will be built by Hunt Realty, according to city documents. The tax break will last five years.
The biggest objection came from council member Paul Ridley, who argued that the city shouldn’t give tax incentives to Goldman Sachs, which last year earned more than $21 billion in net profit.
“What prompts me to move to deny this item is that I do not see the need for public support for a wealthy public corporation that is highly capitalized and does not need this money to decide where they’re going to locate their office,” Ridley said as he introduced a motion to deny the Goldman incentives. “Dallas has so many natural attributes that it can retain and attract businesses on its merits.”
Goldman already has almost 4,000 employees across North Texas, at sites including the Trammell Crow Center in downtown Dallas and Galatyn Commons in Richardson. The new office would be completed “no later than December 31, 2027,” according to the documents, and the city is asking Goldman Sachs to partner with Paul Quinn College, the University of Texas at Dallas and Dallas College to create workforce programs for internships and apprenticeships for the office as well.
The proposed office would cost more than $480 million to build, making it the most expensive real estate project in central Dallas in decades. The incentive package would be one of the largest offerings to lure new businesses to the Dallas area, which is already seeing massive migration from corporations across the nation.