Dallas lawmakers signed off Wednesday on a $18.5 million incentive package to lure a $1.3 billion Morgan Stanley office tower to the city, The Post has learned.
Officials at the Dallas City Council unanimously rubber-stamped the deal 15-0 that would give the New York-based bank a special economic grant and up to a decade of property tax abatements, according to a municipal filing reviewed by The Post.
In exchange, the Wall Street giant would build a major regional office downtown and shift nearly 5,000 jobs to the city — the latest coup for the booming Texas financial corridor known as “Y’all Street” which beckons New York moneymen looking to flee Zohran Mamdani’s ‘tax-and-spend’ left-wing policies.
“Morgan Stanley’s engagement with Dallas speaks to the strength of our financial services ecosystem, and I look forward to welcoming the firm to Y’all Street. We have worked hard to make Dallas America’s most pro-business city,” said Big D Mayor Eric Johnson.
The Ted Pick-led bank hasn’t formally committed yet to the Lone Star state. The company has narrowed its search for a new US operational hub to two finalists — Dallas and Alpharetta, Georgia — the same filing shows.
This deal agreed by Dallas officials is designed to try and tip the balance in the city’s favor. The Post has approached Morgan Stanley for comment.
If Dallas wins the bid, Morgan Stanley would execute a two-phase expansion.
The bank would initially lease roughly 255,000 square feet at Fountain Place on Ross Avenue while crews build a 708,000-square-foot tower near McKinney Avenue, slated to open in 2031, the filing shows.
Morgan Stanley plans to invest about $96.9 million into the temporary site and another $684.2 million into the permanent tower. The developer would spend an additional $650 million on the building’s shell.
Hiring would scale up in waves. Morgan Stanley expects to seat about 1,500 workers by 2031, swell to 3,800 by 2035 and possibly reach 4,800 by the end of the decade.
The jobs — spanning wealth management, compliance, risk, legal, technology and operations — would pay an average of $128,000 a year before benefits.
City staff peg the net economic benefit to Dallas at $64.9 million over the life of the deal.
The move would mark another victory for Texas as it siphons financial behemoths from New York. The southern migration was already gathering force before New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office, but the regional rivalry has intensified.
Goldman Sachs is erecting an 800,000-square-foot, $500 million campus in Dallas set to open in 2028, consolidating more than 5,000 employees.
JPMorgan Chase, meanwhile, now employs more people in Texas than in New York. Financial firms have been drawn by Texas’ lack of a state income tax, its newly minted business courts and a constitutional ban on financial transaction taxes.
Dallas officials have eagerly leaned into the rivalry. Earlier this year, Republican Mayor Eric Johnson taunted his New York counterpart over the corporate exodus, telling the Post that hard-left Hizzoner Mamdani “might be the best thing for Dallas business to ever happen.”
Johnson noted that the flight of corporate titans was “only getting stronger” six months into Mamdani’s administration.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon used his annual letter to shareholders to warn that New York’s tax burden could drive companies and top talent out of the city, with those remarks widely read as a jab at Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tax-the-rich agenda.
The Wall Street veteran said that the Big Apple “has much going for it” but warned that “individuals vote with their feet.”
Landing Morgan Stanley would give Dallas more than bragging rights. The permanent location sits inside the city’s Downtown Connection tax increment financing district, and the firm’s arrival would deepen a financial footprint that already trails only New York nationally.
To clinch the deal, the city is also nominating both phases of the project for Texas Enterprise Zone designations, which could unlock state sales-tax refunds worth up to $5 million.
If approved, construction could break ground this fall with operations beginning in 2027.
Morgan Stanley’s global headquarters are set to remain in Manhattan, where it has operated for decades.
