Why Texas is betting 'Y'all Street' can take on Wall Street

Construction workers stand at the site of Goldman Sachs' new campus in Dallas on March 3. The New York investment bank is supersizing its presence in the Texas city amid a financial boom. Local political leaders and the banking executives they've wooed are calling it "Y'all Street." Yfat Yossifor/for NPR hide caption

DALLAS — The wind is whistling through an enormous, dusty construction site, surrounded by highways, office towers and a sports arena. Inside, hundreds of workers are spending years — and some $700 million — building Goldman Sachs' big bet on the future of Wall Street.

The New York investment bank plans to open this 800,000-square-foot campus in 2028 , with space to eventually employ more than 5,000 local workers. The building will supersize Goldman's presence in Dallas, where the company already has its second-largest U.S. office after its global headquarters in Manhattan.

Even half-built, this massive structure has become a visible symbol of the financial industry's recent growth in Texas — and the state's ambitions to steal more business from Wall Street's birthplace in New York. Now local political leaders and the financial executives they've wooed to Dallas are eager to talk up its financial boom — or what they call "Y'all Street."

Goldman is building its new campus in "the beating heart of Y'all Street," says Aasem Khalil, the Goldman Sachs partner who runs its Dallas office. He rattles off the names of Goldman's top U.S. competitors, like JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — both also headquartered in New York — and points out that they also have or are considering Dallas offices.

A lifelong New Yorker, Khalil moved to Dallas for Goldman a decade ago. Now he's one of the city's biggest public cheerleaders in the U.S. financial industry.

"This is the most welcoming city you'll find anywhere in the country, if not the world," he says. "The culture is amazing, and the business climate far surpassed any expectation that I had, when I came down here as an uninformed New Yorker."

The iconic Reunion Tower is seen through construction of the new Goldman Sachs campus in Dallas. The New York investment bank plans to open the 800,000-square-foot project in 2028, with space to eventually employ more than 5,000 local workers. Yfat Yossifor/for NPR hide caption