You’re sitting in your office having a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. Great news all around. Your city is a top-five metropolitan area in the country and growing. Job growth is phenomenal. Shiny new buildings everywhere.

North Texas 2022? Perhaps, but also Detroit 1950.

Living in North Texas today, it’s easy to take for granted that we lead the nation in job growth and in-migration. Since 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has grown by 23.1%—the most of any metropolitan area in the country for the same period.

It’s expected that DFW will overtake Chicago as the nation’s third-largest metro area by the 2030s.

Much of this growth is attributed to the uptick of companies and workers relocating from other states. Our region has a lot of positive benefits that attract businesses and people – we have all heard them many times: low regulatory climate, no state income taxes, affordable housing, and a diverse economy. Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.

Edge Realty Partners, a leading commercial real estate firm providing national brokerage, development, and investment sales services, announced an agreement with DLC Management Corp. to lease more than one million square feet in two premier power centers in North Texas – The Village at Allen and White Rock Marketplace.

The Village at Allen
Built in 2009 and totaling more than 836,000 square feet, the Village at Allen has become an important commercial hub in the Allen market. The center’s tenants range from well-known shopping destinations to entertainment, dining, and fitness, in addition to being home of the fan-favorite hockey team, the Allen Americans. Retailers include Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Five Below, Burlington, T.J.Maxx, and Best Buy. The Village at Allen is also home to a variety of restaurants including Kelley’s at the Village, Uncle Julio’s, and BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse.

White Rock Marketplace
Also managed by DLC Management Corp. and owned by an affiliate, White Rock Marketplace is located at the northwest quadrant of Garland and Jupiter Roads in Dallas. The shopping center totals 274,822 square feet, and is anchored by Home Depot, and complemented by additional shopping, fast-food favorites, and fitness centers. Retailers include Planet Fitness, Shoe Carnival, Marshalls, and Burlington.

Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C. (Munsch Hardt), in conjunction with HPI and Stream Realty Partners (Stream), recently signed a new, 15-year office lease for its Dallas headquarters in Ross Tower at 500 N. Akard St. Ross Tower is a 45-story, 1.1-million-square-foot, Class-A office building that has undergone a $20 million capital improvement project and features world-class amenities.

The commercial law Firm, founded by Rick Kopf and Steve Harr, as well as the late Russ Munsch, signed its first lease with the office property in 2005, occupying floors 36, 38 and 39. Under its new lease, the Firm will relocate to three consecutive floors, 40, 41 and 42.

Today, Munsch Hardt has 176 employees in Dallas, 50% more than when first committing to Ross Tower. Since current CEO Phil Appenzeller took over the reins, the Firm has been focused on growth, adding notable litigation, corporate and real estate attorneys over the past 10 years and earning record profits in 2021.

Stream Managing Directors Craig Wilson and Dan Harris, Vice Chairman Randy Cooper, and Executive Vice President and Partner Tim Terrell represented Munsch Hardt in the renewal. Stream is a national real estate services, development and investment firm headquartered in Dallas. Global architecture and design firm Gensler, which originally designed the Firm’s current Dallas office, as well as the Firm’s 2022 office space in Houston, Texas, is working on efficient architectural plans to allow the Firm continued growth. Pacific Builders has been retained as the General Contractor on the project, with a projected move-in date of Fall 2023.

Neiman Marcus Group is creating three new corporate hubs to promote innovation and collaboration among its employees. It will debut these office hubs within the next year: one each in Dallas, New York City, and Bangalore, India.

The Dallas hub will be Cityplace Tower in Uptown—selected for its close proximity to its flagship store Downtown and its historically highest-grossing store at NorthPark Center. In May, the Dallas City Council approved a $5 million incentive package to keep the luxury retailer in Dallas, fending off efforts by Irving and Plano to lure the company to the suburbs.

According to Neiman Marcus Group’s EVP, Chief People and Belonging Officer Eric Severson, the new Dallas hub will be an innovation center and a place where associates can gather, meet, and strategize.

“The old way of thinking one person to one seat and that the individual stays in his or her assigned seat all day isn’t conducive to the way people work now,” Severson told D CEO. “People now know corporate roles can be productive wherever. We want to create a space where people can come to when they want or need to come together with other people.” Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.

The life science industry aims to transform the world by blending research and developments into lifesaving healthcare products. A thriving life sciences market follows a healthy “cluster model,” which can be simplified into one word: convergence. The market needs to have educational institutions, capital sources, and government institutions heavily invested in translating science and technology into advanced therapies and devices to improve a population’s health on a broad scale.

Texas is no longer a flyover state for the life sciences industry as Dallas-Fort Worth has rapidly become the next emerging market. As the fourth largest MSA in the country, DFW is home to over 7.6 million residents sprawling over 9,000 square miles. With its immense size, DFW has access to the perfect cluster of resources needed to further advance the life sciences industry.

Future Talent:

The emergence of Dallas-Fort Worth into the life sciences market is largely due to the close proximity to 30 colleges and universities, such as the UT Southwestern Medical School, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Southern Methodist University, UTA, UTD, SMU and Texas Woman’s University. Currently, students across this region are already advancing the industry by evolving research and developments to fuse A.I. with advanced chemistry and biology to create innovative solutions for pharmaceutical development. As students graduate from these institutions, 75 percent of the graduates choose to stay and launch careers in the area, which is why DFW has one of the highest talent growth rates in Texas and is now one of the top markets for STEM talent. Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.