In the years following the pandemic, companies pushed employees to return to the office, even as people complained about resuming long commutes after working remotely. Now some executives are seeking ways to help their staffs spend less time traveling to and from workplaces.
This week, real estate services firm Colliers said it will exit the Uptown Dallas office it has called home for the past 16 years in favor of a building farther north. The move is expected to cut down on its employees' commutes as the average travel time to work has been increasing in the region and across the nation since the pandemic.
The Toronto-based firm leased about 33,000 square feet in North Dallas at International Plaza III, a 13-story, 355,832-square-foot office building. About 145 employees are expected to make the move in October in a decision Colliers' local leader said will "better align with where our employees and clients are today — taking us directly to where the Dallas market is heading."
The North Dallas location "is closer to where our employees live, reducing commute times, and places us at the center of our business activity," Colliers' Texas Region Market Leader Daniel Taylor told CoStar News.
Commuter traffic in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, an area more dependent on vehicles than many other major U.S. cities, has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. That comes as the nation's average commute time has also been on the rise — but has yet to reach that 2019 high.
The return-to-office policies that have played a large part in packing roads and mass transit, slowing travel times to and from work since the pandemic, are now starting to play out in real estate decisions beyond Colliers. For example, AT&T, which abandoned its hybrid work policy at the beginning of 2025, is planning to relocate its Fortune 500 headquarters from downtown Dallas to a northern suburb in a move it said would reduce employee commute times.
Cameron Tubbs, a senior director of data analytics with Site Selection Group, said the return of commute times in the Dallas-Fort Worth region to 2019 levels is largely attributed to population growth and return-to-office policies, making the region a potential sign of what other large markets could face in coming years.
"While the Dallas-Fort Worth region is a large market, employment centers tend to be more spread out, so, as population growth increased and people started working in areas that are more spaced out," traffic congestion increased, Tubbs said.
The move to ease commutes is limited, however. Companies around the country are still looking to get employees back to what many employers have called an effort to enhance collaboration.
But the lengthening commute times in Dallas in recent years reflects the North Texas region's ranking as one of the nation's job leaders. Dallas-Fort Worth has been sprawling north for years, with many of the region's top public schools being in suburbs such as Frisco, Allen and Prosper.
"The LBJ and Dallas North Tollway corridor is widely recognized as the geographic and economic center of Dallas, providing easy access to submarkets in all directions as the region continues to grow north," said Colliers' Taylor, who is also an executive managing director at the firm.
Colliers' Dallas move
Colliers' future home at the building along the Dallas North Tollway is slightly bigger than its current office in Uptown, about 11 miles away. The North Dallas building "offers a Class A, amenity-rich campus experience in a cost-effective Tollway location," Taylor said.
Uptown Dallas is known as a finance and professional services hub, with some of the priciest office rents in the region. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America are both building major campuses in Uptown that are expected to employ thousands.
Other major commercial real estate firms, such as CBRE, Savills, Cushman & Wakefield, Transwestern and JLL, have upscale and trendy offices in Uptown with amenities meant to lure top talent and invite clients to linger over conversations.
For example, CBRE recently completed a renovation of its 95,000-square-foot Uptown Dallas office to include a tucked-away billiards room and speakeasy, the only office the world's largest commercial real estate services firm has with those features.
Colliers might save on rent once it moves to the North Dallas office building with marketed rates between $33 to $36 per square foot while paying for insurance, utilities and property taxes. That's a discount compared with the office tower in Uptown Dallas where Colliers currently has its shop, which has asking rents of $46 to $53 per square foot.
Terms of Colliers' lease in the North Dallas office weren't disclosed.
Colliers' new neighbors in North Dallas will include other real estate firms, such as Mohr Partners, Younger Partners and Cresa. Colliers' home at International Plaza III, with a tower that opened in 2002 and was renovated in 2023, features modern workspaces, a Trophy Fitness-designed workout studio, outdoor seating and a walking trail.
Colliers' West Region Brokerage President David Josker said the firm's "continued investment in the region" reflects the Dallas-Fort Worth area's standing as "one of the most dynamic and strategically important markets in the country."