State Farm shaping attitudes and increasing activity in Richardson market

Two words can sum up what’s been happening in Richardson in 2013: State Farm. The December announcement of State Farm’s plans for a 1.5 million square foot, 7,000-employee campus on Richardson’s north side has been confirmed by the presence of land clearing equipment and an ever increasing tempo of work on their site. The sheer magnitude of the project was such that it came as no great surprise when the Dallas Business Journal selected it as the overall winner at its annual “Best Real Estate Deals” awards gala on April 25.

Even though the initial occupancies in the three-building State Farm campus will not occur until late 2014, the anticipation of that has been shaping attitudes and activity in the Richardson market. It’s no longer a secret that the intersection of Highway 75 and the Bush Turnpike is a nexus for one of the richest veins of  financial and IT talent in not only DFW, but the in the nation. Genpact, a globally-prominent business process management company is planning to add 330 new employees to its 200 on the Bush Turnpike,  American Contractors Insurance Group is moving here from the Park Central area, Cleveland-based Safeguard Properties is opening an office here to serve the mortgage industry, and financial service outsourcing company IQor is adding a new regional office, hiring 60 new workers a week towards its goal of 700. In the most recent development, Texas Capital Bank made a 50,000 SF addition to its 120,000 SF of back office space at 2350 Lakeside. A number of other relocations and expansions in the financial services sector are investigating both existing space and build-to-suit opportunities in Richardson.

Technology companies are on the move as well: Following Inogen last year, Richardson added another California refugee in the form of 123eWireless, a wireless components maker and distributor that found the Texas business climate more to its liking and the Telecom Corridor® a home to a number of its customers. Prodea, a home entertainment platform technology company, shifted its operations to Richardson this spring. Some may remember Anousheh Ansari, one of Prodea’s founders, from her days at the helm of one of Richardson’s great business success stories, Telecom Technologies, Inc. If one wanted to look for a place to put together a portfolio of some of these great Telecom Corridor companies, they could find it here with Trade Station Technologies, a fast-growing software company that enables stock market trading from a PC or Mac and 24/7 market updates from mobile devices.

With the financial service and technology sectors in strong growth modes, 2013 has started off as another very positive year for Richardson’s continued economic growth and expansion.