DALLAS — Read this story and more North Texas business news from our partners at the Dallas Business Journal
Frontier Communications Parent Inc. is considering a corporate headquarters shift from Norwalk, Connecticut, to Dallas.
According to a meeting agenda for a forthcoming Dallas City Council meeting, the telecommunications company is seeking to be considered as an Enterprise Zone project under the Texas Enterprise Zone Act for its office at 1919 McKinney Avenue.
Frontier (Nasdaq: FYBR) proposes that it will retain a minimum of 500 jobs and has already committed more than 600 jobs will be retained or consolidated from its Allen operations to the Uptown Dallas site. The overall job count is part of a return-to-office effort for employees that were formerly remote and will return to their physical desks on a fulltime or part-time basis.
But the proposal, presented by Assistant City Manager Majed Al-Ghafry, brings with it some very direct competition: If Frontier does not receive what it's looking for, it will not only remove the offer to bring its headquarters to Dallas, but it will shift the jobs and headquarters to Tampa, Florida.
If Dallas is selected as Frontiers new headquarters, the company expects that new staff will either be hired or relocated within five years.
There is no expected cost consideration for the city.
As part of the potential agreement, Frontier, which provides internet, phone and television services to residential and small and medium-sized enterprise clients in 25 states, would invest more than $7 million to expand and renovate its space at 1919 McKinney.
Dallas' Office of Economic Development staff has recommended the project for approval to the city council. The TEZ designation must come from the Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism division by way of the Texas Economic Development Bank.
The city council's recommendation of Frontier would leave Dallas with eight more enterprise zone and project designations for the new biennium, which begins Sept. 1.