By Taylor Williams
Texas Business Real Estate
During his latter years in office as Texas governor, Rick Perry made it a priority to lure businesses to the state, particularly from California. Two-and-a-half years into the term of Gov. Greg Abbott, the successor to Perry, the pace of corporate relocations to the Lone Star State shows no signs of slowing down.
Much has been written about the state’s business-friendly environment. Most businesses in Texas that aren’t sole proprietorships or partnerships pay a 1 percent or lower “franchise tax,” in lieu of a traditional corporate income tax. In addition, the state’s governing bodies tend to favor minimal regulations and sponsor research and development initiatives.
The state’s economy is healthy, evident by strong employment growth. The Texas Workforce Commission reports a net gain of 210,000 jobs across the state in 2016, and employers are projected to add another 225,000 jobs in 2017.
Equally important to strong job growth is the quality of life that employees are promised upon relocating.
According to Robert Allen, president of the Texas Economic Development Corp., the lifestyle element is perhaps the most common incentive for moving to Texas among executives and employees alike.
“When we ask executives why they’re moving to Texas, what we hear is that providing a high quality of life for their workforces is number one on their lists,” says Allen.
“Employees back that claim up. They’re able to buy larger houses, keep more of their incomes, send their kids to good schools and live in safe neighborhoods. This makes it easier for employees to take a leap of faith,” he adds.
Robert Allen, Texas Economic Development Corp.
Texas has no personal income tax. Its education system currently ranks 21st based on a state-by-state study by wallethub.com, a credit scoring and reporting site. The study considers factors such as average SAT/ACT score, dropout rates, student-teacher ratios, graduation rate for low-income students and remote-learning opportunities within online public schools. The Huffington Post also notes that Texas has the fourth-highest graduation rate in the country, despite its ever-growing population and high percentage of non-native-English-speaking students.
And according to a recent study from the NYU School of Law, while violent crime rates are rising in urban areas throughout the country, they’re holding steady in Texas. The state’s murder rate falls in the middle of the pack despite it being a national leader in population growth.
Relocations have been a key driver of the state’s robust real estate market, and Allen doesn’t see that changing any time soon.
“Our market understands the needs of the corporate world,” says Allen. “We have demonstrated an ability to close deals because we have tremendous space, a strong workforce and a deep pool of real estate talent to draw from. I don’t think we’re anywhere near the end of the relocations and expansions.”
DFW Leads the Charge
The real estate market in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) has been the primary beneficiary of corporate relocations and expansions.
According to the Dallas Business Journal, the 20 biggest relocations from other states or countries to DFW that were completed or announced between 2015 and 2017 accounted for the creation of approximately 7,600 jobs in North Texas.
Those relocations also generated more than 9 million square feet of newly leased or constructed space. About half of those 20 companies came from California.
Toyota Motor North America epitomizes the opposing environments of California and Texas.
Jim Lentz, Toyota Motor North America
The company’s relocation of its North American headquarters from Torrance, California to the Legacy West development in Plano represents a capital investment of roughly $350 million. In addition, the move brought more than 4,000 jobs to the state.
In determining where to relocate, Jim Lentz, Toyota North America’s CEO, saw several appealing factors in North Texas, all of which reflected the high quality of life he wants for his employees.
“About half the criteria behind the move were business-related and the other half were focused on our team members,” says Lentz. “For our team members, we wanted a location with good schools, a reasonable cost of living and housing, and less stressful commutes to work.”
Lentz also appreciates how spread out his company’s new 100-acre campus is, noting that the sprawl of the campus grants employees different routes to get to and from work. Lentz believes that this feature will make for easier commutes and allow employees to have more flexibility in deciding where they want to live.
“Overall, we felt strongly that Plano would provide our team members the kind of benefits we want them to have, and would make them happy,” says Lentz.
On the operations side, proximity to an airport that provides direct flights to the company’s 10 manufacturing plants across the country, as well as to Japan, were key factors in Toyota’s site selection process.
The state’s combination of business and personal appeal has drawn other companies, such as beverage retailer Jamba Juice, which announced its move from Emeryville, California, to Frisco in May 2016.
Josh Nicosia, Jamba Juice
“Texas offers a low cost of operating and access to a wide variety of restaurant and food service talent,” says Josh Nicosia, vice president of development and legal affairs at Jamba Juice. “In addition, Frisco is a family-oriented community that embodies the fit and fun lifestyle that is at the core of our brand, customers and team members.”
Nicosia adds that finding a market that provided “an affordable cost of living and great quality of life for team members” was instrumental in Jamba Juice’s decision on where to relocate.
The head honcho of another West-to-Southwest company, Jacobs Engineering Group, which relocated to Dallas from Pasadena, California, in late 2016, sees the move to Texas as integral to continued growth.
“Jacobs has had a presence in Texas since 1987,” says Steve Demetriou, chairman and CEO of Jacobs. “The relocation of our corporate headquarters to Dallas enables us to maintain our high-performance culture and workforce, ensures access to top talent and positions us for access to our clients and partners around the world.”
Steve Demetriou, Jacobs Engineering
Other Markets Reap Rewards
Dallas-Fort Worth has been the ringleader of corporate expansions, relocations and consolidations. But major firms are planting their flags in other markets as well, contributing to the growth of jobs, leasing activity and construction alike.
“We are seeing tremendous expansion in DFW, but that doesn’t mean the other areas of the state aren’t performing,” says EDC’s Allen.
Near Houston, Amazon.com is building a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in Katy that is projected to create more than 1,000 jobs. In addition, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries recently moved its American headquarters from New York to Greenway Plaza in downtown Houston, creating additional jobs and providing some much-needed absorption to the metro’s office space.
In San Antonio, television-streaming firm Hulu is investing $13 million in a new, 45,000-square-foot viewer operations center. Healthcare IT firm CaptureRx, as part of its 300-job expansion, has moved its headquarters to downtown San Antonio, leasing an additional 60,000 square feet in the Kress and Grant buildings.
In South Texas, auto parts manufacturer SATA Group is building a $114 million, 350-acre plant in Brownsville, a project expected to create at least 300 jobs. The campus will serve as the Italian firm’s North American headquarters. And of course we can’t forget ExxonMobil and SABIC’s 1,300-acre plastics plant near Corpus Christi, a $10 billion project expected to create 6,000 jobs and come on line as early as 2020.
