Toyota, JPMorgan Chase And State Farm Share Why They Picked North Texas

Dozens of corporate HQs have relocated to North Texas in the last couple of years or plan to do so in the near future. Execs from three of DFW's highest-profile relocations—Toyota, JPMorgan Chase and State Farm—sat down at the ULI Fall Meeting yesterday to discuss why they planted roots here.

JPMorgan Chase followed a consolidation strategy that aimed to give employees more upward mobility, connection to each other and opportunity by putting them all in one place. Co-head of corporate real estate David Arena said the company already had 800 branches in Texas and about 13,000 employees in DFW, so a 1M SF regional campus in Plano's Legacy West made sense. 

State Farm already had many feet on the ground in North Texas before CityLine in Richardson broke ground and dedicated 1.5M SF to the insurance giant, and VP of operations Rod Hoff says the welcoming community and high quality of life for employees made the difference. That, and direct flights to Bloomington, IL, where State Farm is headquartered. 

Flights also played a role in Toyota's move. Execs for the car manufacturing giant sat down with DFW airport execs to discuss flights from Japan before inking a deal at its new 2.1M SF, 100-acre campus. Toyota found the many other corporate HQs appealing for talent sharing and so that spouses of Toyota employees would also have solid career opportunities. 

KDC (which is developing CityLine, Legacy and Toyota's campus) CEO Steve Van Amburgh said when interviewing for each job, 80% of client execs were operations or HR folks. In other words, all three companies placed high importance on designing a space for people and driving development based on recruiting and retaining talent. 

Here are Steve, David, Rod, Cheryl and moderator JLL executive chairman Roger Staubach (yes, that Roger Staubach).