Exclusive: Dallas Cowboys draft major corporate player at The Star in Frisco

Shortly after moving into its new worldwide headquarters, the Dallas Cowboys have landed its first corporate tenant at The Star in Frisco, which is also a longtime partner of the team: Bank of America.

The financial services firm plans to move its banking operations, as well as a number of affiliated arms into a major operations center at The Star in Frisco, which sits about 24 miles from the company's downtown Dallas hub.

Jerry and Stephen Jones watch a video unveiling the Ring of Honor Walk that will be at The Star in Frisco.

“This is a great opportunity for us to co-locate Merrill Lynch, U.S. Trust, the business banking business and parts of the commercial banking and home loan divisions,” Bank of America's Dallas-Fort Worth Market President Richard Holt told the Dallas Business Journal in an exclusive interview.

“This is part of our big strategy of delivering one bank,” he added. “We’ve done some of this already in North Texas, but that’s what we are looking to do over time.” Show Full Story

Holt already has hand selected about 200 employees, all client-facing and revenue-generating, from five North Texas locations to move into more than 60,000 square feet of office space at The Star in Frisco, upon completion in the first quarter 2017. Gensler has been hired as the interior architect of the new office.

The Bank of America outpost will sit above the Dallas Cowboys’ corporate headquarters on floors 4 and 5 of the eight-floor, 398,000-square-foot office building, facing the team’s practice field and facility. The bank has been the official bank of the Cowboys since 2003.

Dallas Cowboys COO Stephen Jones said landing Bank of America as the team's first corporate partner at The Star in Frisco showcases the great relationship between the two groups.

"When we built the office building over our practice facility, we thought hopefully by the end of the day our tenants would be someone we'd be familiar with, or friendlies, if you will," Jones told the DBJ."Bank of America did that in every way. These are people we do business with and is one of the great brands of our country. We feel so fortunate to have them as a partner."

The Cowboys moved into its new global office in July on the first three floors of the east tower — right below their banking partner — and is still solidifying a number of deals. In all, Jones said he's got about 10 corporate partners he's working with to locate them in The Star. Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. is leasing the office space within The Star on behalf the Jones family.

Meanwhile, The Star in Frisco offers Bank of America the opportunity for a big regional win, said Holt, who said the new Frisco office will help the financial services firm keep up with the stretch of regional growth that stretches from north Fort Worth to McKinney.

In all, Bank of America has more than 15,000 employees and numerous offices to cover North Texas, which is approximately the size of New Jersey.

"One of the challenges we have is managing all the growth we are experiencing and not letting obstacles like roadways, a shortage of housing and managing this type of growth get in our way, which I consider a high-class problem," he told me. "This is a major market for Bank of America."

By bringing these different arms of business under one roof in Frisco, Holt said it will further underline a strategy that has already led to more than 5 million referrals throughout the United States (a large portion that converts into clients) and a $1.5 billion bump in revenue.

“We’ve got the same headwinds that everyone is experiencing in the banking world, such as low rates and low growth and the way you overcome that is increasing your market share,” he said. “This really moves the needle for us.”