Frontier Communications Promises Return-To-Work if Deal Is Struck

Originally posted by Candace Carlisle, CoStar News

An East Coast telecommunications company is weighing the possibility of moving its corporate headquarters to either Dallas or Tampa, Florida, a move that could bring hundreds of full-time employees — many of whom are working at home — back to the office under an economic incentive agreement.

Frontier Communications Parent Inc., based in Norwalk, Connecticut, is being nominated to receive an enterprise zone project designation through the Texas Economic Development Bank, part of the governor’s office of economic development and tourism, at its Uptown Dallas office at 1919 McKinney Ave., where the company leases more than 95,000 square feet of office space. The designation will let the company apply for a rebate of state sales and use tax refunds on qualified expenditures of up to $2,500 per job created or retained.

To qualify for this incentive, Frontier must employ at least 25% of its employees be residents of an enterprise zone, economically disadvantaged individuals or veterans. The company has 638 Dallas-based employees, many of whom are working from home, with additional employees in the northern suburb of Allen.

The Dallas-area employees “will be returning to the physical office on either a full-time or hybrid basis,” said Majed A. Al-Ghafry, assistant city manager at the city of Dallas, who nominated the project for the enterprise zone project designation.

“Frontier will either retain these jobs in Dallas, as well as make Dallas its new headquarters, or relocate jobs and the headquarters function to Tampa,” he said, in a letter to city council members ahead of an upcoming meeting next week. “In addition, if Dallas is chosen as the new headquarters, additional staff will be hired or relocated within a five-year period. This project has no cost consideration to the city of Dallas.”

Frontier Communications, a Fortune 500 company, offers internet, phone, television services, and more to residential and small to medium enterprise businesses customers spanning 25 states in the United States.

Return-to-Work Upgrades

The company plans to upgrade its existing Dallas office in the sought-after neighborhood of Uptown, with an estimate to spend $7.4 million upgrading the office, workspaces, furniture, equipment and other technology to bring workers back to the office. The upgrade could also help Frontier accommodate employees it might relocate from the Dallas suburbs to Uptown, the company has told city officials.

The Texas Enterprise Zone funds are paid for by the state of Texas and isn’t tied to city funding. The proposal is expected to go before the Dallas City Council on Wednesday, Aug. 23.

If the city council approves the nomination and it’s accepted by the state, it could add nearly $1.6 million to Frontier’s bottom line on just its retention of the more than 600 employees it currently has in the city of Dallas. If the city uses this project as a nomination, it will leave Dallas with eight other nominations in the new biennium beginning Sept. 1.

Frontier Communications President and CEO Nick Jeffrey lists his home base as being Dallas on his LinkedIn profile. The company employs more than 14,000 workers throughout the United States, according to its latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The telecommunications firm, which supplies broadband to about 2.9 million subscribers, has been seeking to cut costs in recent years as inflation, tight labor markets and economic uncertainty weigh on the company.