This is a story about ambition. They say
everything is bigger in Texas. But for
the Lonear State, the status quo is not
big enough, particularly when it comes
to the financial sector. Our colleague
Scarlett Fu went to Dallas to see what
it is doing to attract Wall Street
business and whether it can handle the
growth.
When we first moved to Dallas, we lived
across the street from the kids'
elementary school and I'll never forget
like walking through the park with like
the ducks and you know it was like a
fairy tale.
>> In Dallas, I think there's no limit.
>> Dallas is a great place to be. Dallas
has long been the financial hub of
Texas. Since the pandemic, it's become a
leading financial and innovation center
in the nation. According to the Census
Bureau, Dallas Fort Worth, Arlington was
the third largest gaining metro area in
the US from July 2023 to July 2024,
adding almost 178,000 residents.
>> I moved for work. Um, I had a great
opportunity to join an innovative
company that was wanting to grow from
local to global. I was 15 years an
entrepreneur in Los Angeles. Um, and
truly 30,000 miles a year in a car,
trying to get home with the kids, all
that good stuff. And I just thought
there had to be a better way. And we
just started looking and a friend called
me from here in Dallas. He says, "You've
got to come out and take a look and and
see all the things that are going on
here." Um, and I did. And and here we
are 11 years later.
>> Sarah and Ryan Brown ditched California
palm trees for Texas tumble weeds 10
years ago, settling down in the Dallas
suburb of Highland Park. I see an influx
of tech and tech focused
uh entrepreneurs and um operators more
and more every day. It's a hot topic
here and I think a lot of it is also
coming because the investments that are
that are coming here. As a tech
entrepreneur or someone in tech, you
don't have to live out of your car in
Silicon Valley.
>> This relative affordability makes the
Northern Texas region a magnet for both
young people at the start of their
careers as well as established
professionals. Dallas now has the second
most financed jobs in the US ahead of
both Chicago and LA. And while it might
remain some way off New York, Mayor Eric
Johnson sees his city as more than just
an upstart.
>> The future is Dallas because I think
this is where the growth in the country
is occurring in terms of business. The
Sunb Belt is the fastest growing part of
the United States. Texas is the fastest
growing part of the Sunb Belt. Dallas is
the fastest growing part of Texas. you
know, if you want to be successful, you
go where the action is headed, not where
it is. I think the action in this
country is headed um to this part of the
United States. And you can't be in a
better place than Dallas.
>> Financial firms are leading the action
in Dallas. From Wells Fargo topping out
construction of a $500 million campus in
the inner city suburb of Irving to
Goldman Sachs building its second
biggest US headquarters downtown to the
New York Stock Exchange moving its
Chicago branch to Dallas, culminating in
what some are calling Yall Street.
>> Folks been trying to figure out what to
call it, right? You had the Texas Stock
Exchange, Texi. Um, and then all of a
sudden Yall Street came in. Um, I think
it's going to stick. I think it's great.
I still would tell my bankers, follow
the money. That's exactly what
everybody's doing. The money's here.
>> Ela Agatha is chairman of the Dallas
region for JP Morgan Chase. After
starting her banking career in New York,
followed by stints in London and San
Francisco, she returned home to Texas in
1984.
>> As I grew with the firm, the state grew.
I've literally watched it happen. And
with today 32,000 employees, we have
more employees in the state of Texas
than any other region for JP Morgan,
>> including New York.
>> Including New York.
>> Agathar has seen the city of Dallas grow
in stature in the financial world.
>> In the 1980s, Michael Lewis coined the
term equities in Dallas and made that
into a shorthand for the least desirable
assignment in an investment bank. The
equivalent of being out of sight, out of
mind.
>> Um, does anyone Yeah. Does anyone
reference that? No. No one says that.
>> No one says that anymore. That but I
remember that but no one says that
anymore.
>> Why do you think that is?
>> I think because of the growth. I think
the the wealth the wealth that has been
generated here today. We are so diverse
as an economy. I mean we got smart. It's
everything from tech, food, retail, huge
retail. But that diversity, it really
attracted the growth that people didn't
have to just be an oil and gas guy to
move down here. Years ago, you really
needed to be in New York for a big job.
That has all changed. We have lots of
jobs here in Dallas that are national
jobs. Dallas has a lot of things going
for it as a city. Number one, there's
the infrastructure here. Two, it's a
very businessfriendly environment. And
three, there's that tremendous depth of
a talent pool. uh young professionals
are coming here in droves. Just
anecdotally, we recently had a post for
a new analyst position and had over 200
applicants within 24 hours and all from
outside of the state of Texas. Really,
now this is a career move. It is the
career move for young people to come to
Dallas to build something. JP Morgan
isn't the only big bank betting on
Dallas.
>> I believe you can almost see Goldman
Sachs's new headquarters from your
office here.
>> Oh, right there. Yes. I look at it every
day. It's very annoying. Um I'm teasing.
uh but and then in BFA and you just see
this this along this park the growth
that has happened and it's attracted
many financial type institutions the
opportunity set here in Dallas
especially on the wealth management side
is tremendous the number of households
in our target demographic has grown 20%
year-over-year in the last one year
alone and it's been consistent over the
last five so I just can't imagine a
better place to do what I'm doing Ashley
Herps is the head of the Dallas market
at JP Morgan Private bank. He is one of
the city's many recent transplants.
>> We moved here for my job. The
opportunity to run JP Morgan's private
bank in Dallas was an absolute dream
come true. Was a dream job, no-brainer
for our family. Um it was definitely not
easy. The the career decision was easy.
The personal decision was harder. It's
just been an incredible place to build a
career for me. Like I I love my job. I
can't wait to get to work every day, but
my family's happy and that's really
important to me. and and I it's I think
it's a good testament to to what living
in Dallas is like.
>> Dallas absolutely can handle the the
population growth we're experiencing.
>> Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is quick to
compare his city with New York.
>> This has been a longterm
conscious effort on the part of
the city and our business community to
make sure Dallas continues to be a truly
pro business city. It's not just
rhetoric. We are a sanctuary city from
socialism in this country. This is a
place where we still actually view
business and people who create jobs and
people who contribute to the economic
growth of the city. That's a good thing.
They're not the enemy. We're not trying
to punish them. We don't vilify them.
The It's just not in our DNA. Like
Dallas is a city that, you know, gave
the world Texas Instruments, gave the
world Southwest Airlines. A lot of our
great Fortune 500 companies started
here. We have a culture here that really
respects business.
>> So when it comes to financial firms,
what do you think is Dallas's biggest
draw to that sector?
>> We don't really feel the need to throw
incentives around to get people to
invest in Dallas and to move to Dallas
and to relocate significant operations
to Dallas. We will target a big fish
like a Goldman Sachs because then the
other companies will follow. you'll
create an incentive for other financial
service firms to be in that same
ecosystem with a company like a Goldman
Sachs, but you also will get the
accounting firms, the law firms, and it
becomes sort of this this virtuous
cycle. So, the Goldman Sachs deal is a
great example of a case where they're
going to invest over half a billion
dollars in an 800,000 square foot
development that's going to create 5,000
jobs and it's just going to be
transformative for our city.
Chris Kleiner leads Hunt realy which is
one of the developers behind the Goldman
project. Hunt realy is also working on a
massive development to the north of
Dallas with other marquee names. The
professional golfers association of
America and Universal
>> Fields is our 2500 acre development in
Fris. It's a gem amidst all the unique
positive things going on in Frisco and
Prosper and other parts north. And there
was the opportunity to master plan
something really special. We set our
sights to create something different,
something worldclass. The inclusion of
26 miles of trails, the inclusion of
water, the inclusion of parks, different
price point homes, very unique mixeduse
retail, residential office development.
Mass attracts Mass and we're over a
thousand homes being built. We've got
great residential home developer
partners. Universal has bought 100
acres. They're going to be opening a
very unique ages 3 to 11 theme park here
in 26. University of North Texas has a
Frisco campus that is adjacent to our
site. We're thrilled with the potential
and we're seeing that come to life.
>> Just northeast of Fields lies Prosper,
another small town in the Dallas Fort
Worth area that is pitching families on
its affordability and quality of life.
We're saying, "Here's this community
that we have awesome amenities, great
school district, you've got space to
meet people, we have lifestyle programs,
and it doesn't matter where you come
from. We get a lot of people in from the
West Coast. Toyota relocation. There's
been other Fortune 500 relocations."
>> David Blom is president of Telus Group.
Its Windong Ranch project in Prosper is
now home to some of Prosper's 40,000
plus residents. From 2000 to 2025,
Prosper's population has grown by
2,000%.
>> It's become more diverse, and diverse is
a probably an overused term, but with
corporate relocations from the West
Coast. We've had people come in from the
Midwest, from from the Northeast.
>> The risk is all this growth makes Dallas
and its surrounding suburbs less
affordable.
>> There was any issue that our community
is facing is that the housing prices are
going up. So less families are able to
afford it. So we have more seats in our
schools. So that could be two ways,
right? We don't have enough funding for
our school, but we don't have crowded
schools either. So I guess it's a
balance.
>> New residents also point out a downside
of masterplanned communities, the
limited outdoor public spaces,
especially when compared with the
natural landscapes and wonders along the
coasts.
>> I think it's really difficult to be a
weekend warrior here on the recreation
side. And when we lived in California,
we're at the ocean. We're at the beach.
We're in the mountains. We were doing
everything outside. Um there's not a
national forest here. There's no Bureau
of Land Management here. And so
everything is very privatized. So I do
miss the ability to just get outside and
maybe get lost.
>> The growth of Dallas can't be
questioned, but Yall Street is not yet a
replacement for Wall Street. While firms
are adding middle and back office jobs
there, the seats of power still reside
in New York. Jamie Diamond and the CEOs
of JP Morgan's different businesses
aren't likely to move from the firm's
brand new headquarters in Midtown
Manhattan, but Dallas is heading in the
right direction. The growth just keeps
happening. Our Plano office was about
6,000 when we built it and then we kept
adding to it. You need an area of the
country that can get to both coasts
quickly and this center of the country
is a huge advantage. Jame used to tease
about the headquarters will be here. No,
no, it's in New York. make no mistake,
but he is very proud of Texas.
>> I want people to know that Dallas really
is a place where the American dream is
still very much alive and well and it's
not rhetoric like we really are a place
where people can come who are not from
here. We welcome outsiders. It's a place
that that really embraces energy and and
hard work, that can do spirit we have.
When we see another folks, we embrace
it.
>> How long will it take for Dallas to win
as a financial center? I think we're
winning. I really think we're winning
now with the growth there. There are
still people that have not been to Texas
that might have kind of a image in their
head. So I think that over the next 10
years as more people understand the
sophistication, I think that that image
of Texas will continue to change.