AT&T signed a 12-year lease for 186,000 square feet at Lakeside Boulevard Tower in Richardson, marking one of the largest recent expansions in the Dallas-Fort Worth office market, the Dallas Business Journal reported.
The Dallas-based telecom giant, which has about 400 employees in Richardson, plans to consolidate several regional sites into the space, at 2221 Lakeside Boulevard, ultimately growing its local headcount to as many as 1,400. The lease spans seven floors and will support an expanded call center operation.
The building’s owner, Dallas-based Provident Realty Advisors, plans to invest roughly $15.8 million into property improvements as part of the deal. Provident acquired the 807,000-square-foot building, which also houses real estate tech firm RealPage, last November.
Richardson City Manager Don Magner said the move was driven by proximity to a DART station, nearby restaurants at CityLine, and the building’s amenities. The city worked with the landlord to upgrade amenities and attract tenants, he said.
The expansion aligns with the company’s push to create modern workspaces AT&T’s global head of real estate Michael Ford said. The company called all employees back to the office in December after offering remote and hybrid work since the pandemic.
Dallas is reckoning with losing commercial tenants to the suburbs. The city recently launched an initiative to ban sleeping on the streets and to target crime hotspots. The initiative followed a Boston Consulting Group study that said AT&T was considering moving its longtime global headquarters in Whitacre Tower, at 208 South Akard Street, if crime wasn’t addressed.
AT&T recently acquired Lumen Technologies’ Mass Markets fiber division for $5.75 billion, a move set to boost the company’s broadband reach in major metros like Denver, Phoenix and Orlando.
Richardson has become a magnet for corporate expansion in recent months. In March, Geico leased 165,000 square feet at 2375 North Glenville Drive, its second building in the city, to accommodate another 1,000 workers, just three months after picking Richardson for a new 500-job operations hub. Micron Technology is also gearing up to create up to 250 jobs at a roughly 60,000-square-foot site at Collin Crossings, where it expects to invest $30 million over the next four years.
— Judah Duke
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