In February 2025, Dallas business and civic leaders gathered outside Neiman Marcus’ downtown flagship to celebrate a temporary reprieve for the iconic retailer and show that downtown could keep moving forward.<\/p>\n
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New housing projects were planned or underway. City leaders promised progress on long-standing challenges. Supporters were hopeful about the future of the\u00a0city’s urban core.<\/p>\n
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Pedestrians walk past the Neiman Marcus store June 1 in downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n
Angela Piazza\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Today, the outlook is far less certain.<\/p>\n
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Neiman Marcus<\/a> is leaving downtown. The Mavericks plan to\u00a0move to North Dallas<\/a>. The Stars have chosen Plano for a new arena. Earlier this year, AT&T announced plans to relocate its headquarters<\/a> to Collin County and Fifth Third Bank selected a campus on the northern edge of town for its regional headquarters.<\/p>\n The decisions are largely unrelated. But together they\u2019ve stirred anxieties about whether Dallas is keeping pace with a region where neighboring cities increasingly are competing for jobs, investment and prestige.<\/p>\n \u201cThe wolf is not in this room,\u201d Mayor Eric Johnson said at last week\u2019s City Council meeting. \u201cThe wolf is up the tollway.\u201d<\/p>\n As suburbs gain ground, downtown Dallas continues to struggle with empty offices, changing work patterns and pressure to keep pace. City leaders are scrambling not only to keep major employers and institutions, but also to attract new ones.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The latest blows have been jarring, said Walter Bialas, head of research at Goodwin Advisors, a local real estate firm.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s a shot to the kidneys, and there’s one to the midsection. Then there’s an uppercut, then there’s another one to the midsection,\u201d he said. \u201cOh my goodness, this is just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n With a statue of Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki in the foreground, an exterior view of the American Airlines Center in Victory Park, home of the Mavs and Dallas Stars.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n That doesn’t mean downtown is in decline. Supporters point to billions of dollars in planned projects, a growing residential population and confidence the city\u2019s core can rebound, even if it looks different than it once did.<\/p>\n \u201cDowntown Dallas is not going away,\u201d said Christopher Penney, associate professor of management at the University of North Texas, noting it has faced challenges in the past. \u201cIt will come back from this. I have no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Some of the city’s most influential developers and business leaders believe the recent setbacks demand a more aggressive push to remake downtown for a new era.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city is going to have to, instead of leading from behind as it apparently did on the arena issue, get ahead\u201d and be more proactive, said real estate developer Ray Washburne.<\/p>\n Washburne was among the developers and business leaders who backed moving City Hall and redeveloping that property as part of a downtown arena and entertainment district.\u00a0<\/p>\n \nRemaking the core\u00a0\n<\/p>\n For much of the past decade, civic leaders have said Dallas’ prosperity depended on strengthening downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Yet the signs of strain are easy to spot.<\/p>\n As of early this year, nearly 27% of downtown Dallas office space sat unused, and that\u2019s expected to climb to about 35% after AT&T and Comerica<\/a> exit. That would be the nation\u2019s highest vacancy rate of any central business district.<\/p>\n Downtown can’t rely on office workers anymore, and developers say it needs more residents. They see its future in housing, entertainment and attractions that bring more people to the city center.\u00a0<\/p>\n Already, old office buildings are being converted into housing and new apartment projects are rising across downtown.<\/p>\n It is now home to nearly 16,000 residents across many residential properties, according to Downtown Dallas Inc. That\u2019s roughly the population of Addison.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Dallas isn’t failing but evolving, said Brad Cheves, president and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber.<\/p>\n The AT&T and Comerica buildings in downtown Dallas are seen at dusk, Jan. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n \u201cPeople focus on the things that we see in this 48-hour news cycle,\u201d he said, stressing that the city and region remain in a strong position overall. He said the city should focus less on what downtown has lost and more on what it already has and can become.<\/p>\n Boosters point to a growing list of projects they believe can help do that, including the $3.7 billion redevelopment of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, the expansion of Dallas College, transportation upgrades, the planned Interstate 30 deck park and an $800 million Therme wellness resort proposed for the Cedars.<\/p>\n Washburne, the developer who owns Founders Square and other key downtown sites, called some of the half-empty buildings \u201czombie towers\u201d that suck the life out of the city.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He suggested imposing new costs on owners of surface parking lots and aging office towers. The goal would be to spur redevelopment rather than allow owners to sit on underused properties.<\/p>\n \nRivals next door\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Dallas once enjoyed advantages that came with being the unquestioned economic center of North Texas. Today, the region’s growth has created new rivals.<\/p>\n Plano, Frisco, Irving, Arlington and other suburbs have become powerful draws in their own right.<\/p>\n Just last week, Samsung Electronics gave Plano another win with plans to move its U.S. headquarters there from New Jersey<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s so many points now \u2014 there’s so many little job nodes out there, you know, clusters of buildings, jobs,\u201d said Ted Benavides, a former Dallas city manager and professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. \u201cThe competition’s gone up.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert speaks Feb. 25, 2025, at a news conference outside the downtown Neiman Marcus store.\u00a0<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n With Neiman Marcus, city leaders moved quickly to resolve a lease dispute that threatened the downtown store with closure in March 2025.<\/p>\n The agreement kept the flagship open through the holiday shopping season and gave Saks Global, which had acquired Neiman Marcus, time to explore “a reimagination of the location in collaboration\u201d with the city.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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