Coming out of the pandemic, Dallas-Fort Worth was the No. 1 destination for corporate relocations by a wide margin, but in 2026, the competition is much fiercer, from within Texas and beyond. 

Several internal and external factors have site selectors thinking twice about automatically recommending DFW to their top-tier clients, including rising regional home prices, questions about Dallas’ office market and the rapid ascension of competing national markets. At the same time, more companies are opting to establish regional hubs instead of fully relocating to the metro.  

“DFW had record-shattering success a few years ago … but it’s difficult to sustain that type of success year after year after year,” said John Boyd Jr., principal of Florida-based corporate site selection specialist The Boyd Co.

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DFW has added more than 100 corporate headquarters since 2018, thanks to its business-friendly climate, growing population and land availability. The region now boasts more than 20 Fortune 500 companies, and its publicly traded firms have a combined market value of approximately $1.5T.

However, construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.’s move to Irving in 2022 was the last Fortune 500 company to relocate its headquarters to DFW. 

Fierce Competition

DFW’s Fortune 500 relocation momentum has stalled just as markets like Miami, Charlotte and Phoenix have emerged as major contenders to DFW’s relocation throne. Those cities have their own growing talent pools, business-friendly environments and supportive infrastructures, according to a new CBRE report. 

Without new corporate tenants coming into the market, the future of DFW’s office sector begins to look murky. 

Corporate relocations and Y’all Street fueled the region’s trophy office market last year, but new trophy product is limited, and companies haven’t lined up to fill the 1M SF of office space in Whitacre Tower that will be left vacant when AT&T moves to Plano. 

Intrastate relocations have become more common than full corporate moves in recent years, as have companies establishing regional headquarters in North Texas, according to Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development at the Dallas Regional Chamber.

He cited Goldman Sachs’ 800K SF regional campus in Dallas and ScotiaBank’s 133K SF lease at Victory Commons One as examples of these regional hubs and what they bring to the metro. 

Across the country, corporate headquarters relocations grew by more than 70% from 2024 to 2025, according to CBRE. 

DFW nabbed 11 of the 164 headquarters relocations last year, the most of any city in the country. Seven companies also made intrastate moves to DFW, including some that consolidated operations to rightsize their footprints in the metro, according to CBRE.

The Miami metro was second in the nation, with eight new corporate headquarters in 2025, and it scored Palantir Technologies earlier this year. The Austin, Charlotte and New York metros were right behind Miami with seven new headquarters each. 

A North Texas highway

Some of those cities also received more support than DFW from site selectors surveyed this year about the best cities for corporate headquarters projects. After topping Site Selector magazine’s list of best cities for headquarters last year, Dallas fell to fourth this year, behind Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte. 

Rising home prices in DFW have also made a move to the metro less attractive for corporate executives, who no longer get as much bang for their buck. Median listing prices for homes in DFW have risen more than 40% since the start of the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

Winning Formula

With an abundance of undeveloped land, a pro-business climate and a diverse, educated workforce, Texas metros have been the biggest winners of corporate relocations for close to a decade. DFW gained the most new headquarters in the country during that time for those factors, as well as a high quality of life and affordability for businesses, JLL Executive Managing Director Bret Hefton said. 

The region’s favorable tax climate, with no state or local income taxes, is always attractive to companies.

“That’s a big factor when you’re talking to companies that are relocating or considering relocation from New York and California,” Hefton said.

He also praised the metro’s growth and central location in the U.S., which allows for easy transportation to anywhere in the country. 

DFW’s nearly 124,000 new residents made up the second-largest population increase in the nation for the 12 months that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data released last month. 

Booming markets in Collin, Denton and Kaufman counties continue to land major mixed-use projects and master-planned communities for those new residents because of their large swaths of undeveloped land.

The region’s growing population helps companies find workers when they relocate, as does its strong talent pipeline coming from a diverse range of educational institutions, said Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development at the Dallas Regional Chamber. 

The Dallas skyline

DFW is also unique for its diversified industries, which allow it to cast a wide net when trying to attract relocations. 

“Whereas Houston is very energy-driven and even though we’ve become more financial services-focused, we’re not nearly as dependent upon that industry as some other markets are with other industries,” Hefton said. 

Looking Ahead 

Many of the nation’s high-growth markets have seen skyrocketing home prices and costs of living, so DFW isn’t alone in struggling to score huge corporate relocations, Boyd said. Concerns about how artificial intelligence will affect real estate commitments in the years ahead have also prompted companies to favor intrastate moves and regional hub setups instead of full headquarters relocations. 

Companies are expected to continue picking DFW for secondary headquarters and regional hubs, but there will also be more full corporate relocations to the metro. 

“That’s what these decisions are based on — it comes to ‘where do we grow?'” Rosa said. 

Hefton said DFW remains a popular destination nationwide for companies considering a move. 

JLL has also engaged with several companies about possible relocations to DFW, but none have yet made full commitments. Still, Hefton said it is inevitable that DFW will see another major corporate relocation soon.  

“There’s a good chance that there will be an announcement in the next 12 months,” Hefton said.

After a multistate search, an emerging automotive manufacturer has landed on Charlotte for its corporate home. 

A 1968 Scout truck

Scout Motors announced Wednesday it has selected Charlotte for its new headquarters.

Scout will invest $206M in the 300K SF facility, which will serve as a center for the company’s executive leadership, research and development, finance, IT, sales and marketing teams. 

The headquarters will reportedly bring approximately 1,200 jobs to the region, with initial staffing and office development beginning in 2026. Scout will also relocate more than 350 employees based in Northern Virginia to temporary offices in Charlotte as the new HQ is being built, according to the city of Charlotte.

The new center of operations will be at the Commonwealth development in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Mecklenburg County. Nuveen Real Estate and Crosland Southeast developed the 12-acre property, Charlotte Business Journal reports. 

Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh said in a statement that the car manufacturer selected Charlotte due to its talent pool and connection to leading universities. 

The state of North Carolina will provide Scout Motors a job development investment grant worth up to $46.5M if the company reaches certain hiring and investment goals, The Charlotte Observer reports.

Scout Motors, an American subsidiary of Volkswagen, is a revitalization of the Scout light-truck brand that was originally produced by International Harvester in 1961. The Scout was known as the first utility offroad truck that could double as a family vehicle. In 2022, Scout Motors formed to bring all-electric Scout trucks and SUVs to market.

The site for the new headquarters sits approximately one hour north of Scout Motors’ manufacturing center, which is under construction off Interstate 77 in the Columbia suburb of Blythewood, South Carolina. That facility is scheduled to open in 2027 for the production of Scout Traveler SUVs and Scout Terra trucks. 

The $2B Blythewood facility will cover between 1,100 and 1,600 acres, with the main plant slated to be 1.3M SF. 

In 2023, the state of South Carolina agreed to chip in $1.3B to help with the cost of the factory’s construction and infrastructure upgrades. Scout must meet hiring goals and invest a minimum of $400M in the facility during an eight-year period, according to a report by The Nerve, the reporting arm of The South Carolina Policy Council. 

CBRE arranged the $12.05-million sale of 6060 Cornerstone Ct. West, a 67,099-square-foot office building in San Diego, to a local private investor, Sorrento Biotech Center LLC, which plans to convert the property for life sciences use. A CBRE team of Matt Carlson, Hunter Rowe, Camille Doan, Alex Hayden, Barbara Perrier, Mike Longo, Matt Pourcho and Anthony DeLorenzo represented the corporate seller. Chris Duncan of Voit Real Estate represented the buyer.

“Significant entrepreneurial capital continues to flow into the market, focusing on mid-market lab investments and repurposing underutilized assets,” said Carlson.

The asset is situated on 2.96 acres at a prominent intersection in Sorrento Mesa, a hub for growth and innovation. Its prime corner location is enhanced by proximity to universities, renowned research institutions and San Diego’s life sciences epicenter.

Built in 1985, the property was owned and occupied by a corporate owner. This transaction marks the first time the asset has been for sale to the broader real estate market.

Colliers and been appointed as the exclusive agent for the sale of the “CNO Corporate Campus” located at 11825 N. Pennsylvania Street in Carmel, Indiana. The 78-acre property is currently owned by CNO Financial Group, which is moving to its new corporate office at 11299 Illinois Street in the Spring of 2024.

The campus includes more than 611,000 square feet of building space and 2,700 parking spaces. “This is an exciting opportunity to make a material contribution to the fabric of Carmel, a city known for its forward-thinking approach to community and economic development,” said Andrew Urban, SVP, of Occupier Services of Colliers.

“Our team at Colliers is excited to guide investors through the possibilities that the property offers — from various formats of residential living, retail, hospitality, commercial space and more,” added David Burden, EVP of Occupier Services of Colliers.

Connect Industrial Midwest 2024 will take place on March 5, 2024, at Joe’s Live in Rosemont, Illinois. Click here for more information and to register.