FRISCO, Texas — This story was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original version here.
Financial services heavyweight TIAA is making rapid progress on its new corporate hub in Frisco.
Roughly 720 employees have moved into the 500,000-square-foot, 15-story building at 3965 North Dallas Pkwy. in recent weeks, consolidating from its office in Lewisville and a satellite location in Frisco. Work on the third, fourth and fifth office floors was completed in July and a grand opening was held in August. Construction on the remaining space is set to be completed early next year, said Ray Bellucci, executive vice president, head of record-keeping and chief administrative officer for retirement solutions.
TIAA — aka the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America — manages around $1.3 trillion in retirement funds for educators. It's long had a presence in North Texas, but its move into a new corporate hub near The Star in Frisco underscores its long-term vision for the region. Executives recently revealed new details about TIAA's local operations, which have been steadily growing in recent years.
About 300 additional employees will transition to the site once the sixth floor opens in October, Bellucci said. Overall, the building has the capacity to hold about 2,300 staff members.
"We decided that Frisco was going to be the city because of talent, the workforce [and] proximity to universities," Bellucci said. "We saw Frisco as an amazing opportunity for us … to consolidate a number of our teams here."
When finished, the facility will serve as a central hub for TIAA’s expanding workforce, hosting client meetings, off-site events and employee gatherings. Nuveen Real Estate, part of TIAA, will manage the property.
TIAA has a hybrid office, with employees coming in three times a week. The Frisco hub is set up to faciliate a productive "ecosystem" for employees, offering a cafeteria, coffee shop, pharmacy and free gym within the facility.
"The size of the training rooms and video conference rooms are such that we can bring large groups of employees together, focusing on redesigning processes, process improvement [and] new technology developments," Bellucci said. "That virtual presence, bringing the other centers together, is so much easier here because of the design of the office."
TIAA chose to open an office near The Star, which is centered around the Dallas Cowboys practice facility and headquarters, because of the area’s thriving business environment and nearby amenities.
When searching for a new site, Bellucci said he looks at a region's diversity, talent pool and access to transportation, among other factors. TIAA embarked on a nationwide search before selecting Frisco.
Bellucci is actively recruiting talent from the Dallas area and beyond: "Our goal is to grow in Frisco from any location." Currently, the firm lists 19 open positions in Frisco on its website, in roles from auditing to real estate.
"I think that the opportunity here is one where we can grow our teams because of the access to talent," Bellucci said. "This is a really good investment for us as a company and just the ability to grow here is a great opportunity for us and our employees too."
TIAA announced plans for the Frisco office in 2022, and the development team including Dallas-based Structure Tone Southwest, Arlington-based Con-Real LLC and Dallas-based Corgan began construction later that year. The estimated cost of development was $110 million, according to a 2023 filing with the state.
In addition to Frisco, TIAA has U.S. corporate centers in New York, Charlotte and Chicago as well as in Mumbai and Pune, India.
TIAA plans to shut down a 1,000-employee Denver office in 2026 and could move some of those employees to Frisco, Denver Business Journal reported in August. But it doesn't appear that any changes have been made yet — TIAA said in a statement that all of the employees are based in DFW.
