Dallas and Charlotte compete for corporate relocations
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Charlotte, N.C., has emerged as one of Dallas' top rivals in the wake of the pandemic and revival of corporate relocations.
Why it matters: The two cities are increasingly going head-to-head in economic development deals worth thousands of jobs and billions in investment.
The big picture: Charlotte, home to Bank of America's headquarters, is the No. 2 banking hub in the country, based on assets.
- The Dallas metro has quickly moved up to the second-largest hub for financial workers, behind only New York, with about 382,000 professionals compared to Charlotte's 125,000.
State of play: Charlotte often compares itself to its closest southern city, Atlanta.
- Dallas sits in the middle of the country, ideal for the shipping industry and corporations balancing their East Coast and West Coast relationships.
- And, the North Texas labor force is also nearly three times larger than Charlotte's.
Case in point: Scotiabank, one of the largest banks in North America, last year chose Dallas over Charlotte for its $60 million U.S. regional hub with 1,020 jobs.
- Charlotte had offered $19 million more than Dallas in local and state incentives, CBJ reported. North Carolina officials had hoped the aggressive incentives would offset "differences" from Texas in operational costs, such as construction and taxes.
- Meanwhile, Wells Fargo, which has its largest employee base in Charlotte, opened a Las Colinas campus in October for 4,500 workers.
Yes, but: SoFi, a San Francisco-based fintech company, picked Charlotte over Frisco and Jacksonville, Florida, for a new regional hub last fall.
What they're saying: "We don't have a beach. We don't have a mountain. But we're prosperous," Mike Rosa, the Dallas Regional Chamber's senior vice president of economic development, tells Axios.
- "You put a little extra jingle in your pocket, and you get on one of those American Airlines flights, like I know you can do in Charlotte, and go to a lot of places," Rosa says.
The other side: "They're trying to compare themselves to an alternative to New York City or Wall Street. And we're going to have to compete," Charlotte Center City Partners' Michael Smith says.