Goldman Sachs may be synonymous with Wall Street, but working there no longer requires you to be a stone’s throw from downtown Manhattan.
The investment bank’s largest US workforce outside of New York City is now in Dallas, Texas — and the firm has plans to continue to grow its presence in the southern city in the coming years. Indeed, it’s spending some $500 million to build a new office campus near downtown Dallas that’s expected to house as many as 5,000 employees, or more than 10% of its global workforce, when it opens in 2028.
That’s up from the roughly 1,500 staffers who worked at the Dallas site at the conclusion of 2018, the year CEO David Solomon took over leadership of the bank.
What will the new office tower look like, and what might it be like to work there every day?
BI spoke to two Goldman executives overseeing the project, Ben Trinder and Aasem Khalil, about the design, the office perks, and what it will mean to Goldman staffers based in Dallas. They said the goal was to create a space that feels more like a campus than a commercial office tower, including rooftop gardens, a park, and paths for walking and biking.
The design vision
The three-acre site, located in the hip Victory Park neighborhood, will include an 800,000-square-foot office tower powered by electricity. The structure will include a north and south wing united by a central, connective segment. The north wing will rise 14 stories, the central 10 stories, and the south wing 8 stories.
The building will include bicycle parking, lockers, and changing facilities, allowing employees to cycle to work.
A central, landscaped walkway called Paseo will connect the building to the large nearby park. An oculus above the Paseo will give passersby a glimpse into some of the building’s busy offices while allowing sunlight to filter through the building.
Parking will be stored underground to make the campus more walkable.
“We pushed all of our parking below ground so that our building had a relationship with the public realm that was respectful,” said Trinder, a managing director and and global head of real estate development for corporate and workplace solutions at Goldman Sachs.
Rooftop gardens
Each section of the tower will feature rooftop gardens and terraces where employees can gather for a breath of fresh air or to enjoy the Dallas skyline. The gardens will also host events, meetings, and functions.
The landscape designer on the project, Michael VanValkenburg, is known for projects including Brooklyn Bridge Park and Maggie Daley Park. VanValkenburg will also be responsible for developing a 1.5-acre park adjacent to the Goldman campus. A passageway will run through the office, connecting it to the park.
“By elevating the centerpiece of the building, we’ve created this connection to the community, to the park,” Trinder said. “We knew that the park was the heart of the development.”
From wellness to dining
Amenities include fitness and wellness facilities, childcare services, and multiple dining options. Dining options will be spread throughout the building but the main food exchange will be located on the second floor. The building will also include a social lounge and coffee bars.
“The new campus was designed to support the health and wellness of Goldman Sachs’ workforce,” the company said in a 2023 press release announcing the site’s groundbreaking.
What the neighborhood has to offer
The new campus will be based in Dallas’s trendy Victory Park neighborhood, named for a nearby park known for its festivals and outdoor markets. The hub is close to the American Airlines Center where the Dallas Mavericks play, as well as the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Dallas World Aquarium, a Ritz-Carlton hotel, the arts district, and plenty of popular restaurants.
Khalil — who also serves as the firm’s global head of investment-banking services — described the location as representing “the heart of the city” because of its central location between Dallas’ upscale uptown district and its vibrant business district located downtown.
Goldman’s Dallas expansion is part of an multiyear cost-cutting plan introduced at the company’s inaugural Investor Day in 2020. The bank said it would save money by shifting staffers from higher-cost centers like New York City and London, to more affordable cities like Dallas, Texas, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The bank’s current leadership sees the Dallas team continuing to grow once the new office opens as a result.
“We build for expansion,” Trinder said, “and this office is designed to accommodate future growth.”
Reed Alexander is a correspondent at Business Insider. He can be reached via email at [email protected], or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758.
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