Two tech-related companies — IBM and TT Electronics — plan to close operational facilities in North Texas.
IBM plans to close its so-called Innovation Studio at 1177 S. Belt Line Road in Coppell, Texas, where CoStar data has the New York-based global tech company leasing 150,000 square feet of space, by year's end. The closing is part of a regional consolidation, a company spokesperson told CoStar News.
In the consolidation, a small percentage — or 59 workers — are unable to relocate to the other Dallas offices. In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification letter sent to the state, IBM said it expects 53 of those employees to no longer work at the company beginning on Aug 29. The remaining six workers will depart IBM by the end of November.
"Dallas is an extraordinary — and growing — center of talent innovation, and IBM remains committed to investing in new experiences for our clients and employees in this market," the IBM spokesperson told CoStar News in an email. "We expect to consolidate the majority of Dallas-based IBMers into two existing offices towards the end of 2025.
"This office consolidation will strengthen our local footprint, building on our more than 55-year tenure in Texas," the spokesperson added. "Our Dallas offices will serve as one hub for our U.S. sales team, showcasing the AI and hybrid cloud technologies and consulting expertise IBM clients are increasingly investing in."
Those employees who are expected to no longer work at IBM hold various leadership roles at IBM Innovation Studio Dallas. The innovation studio opened its doors in September 2007 to help startups and software developers.
"Tech is a very volatile industry," Steve Triolet, a senior vice president of research and market forecasting for Partners Real Estate, told CoStar News. "I'm not largely concerned about Dallas-Fort Worth, but I do know there's isolated cases where companies are facing some issues that could be AI-related."
Triolet has no direct knowledge of IBM's or TT Electronics' real estate decisions but has been tracking the Dallas-Fort Worth region's real estate market for decades.
IBM has a long history in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, with the company once creating a campus in North Texas to house about 20,000 employees before downsizing its operations in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, TT Electronics, a U.K.-based global manufacturer of electronic components, plans to close its factory in the Dallas area as it faces declining revenue. TT Electronics told its investors it would close its Plano, Texas, facility at 2900 E. Plano Parkway as its order activity is hit by continued weakness in its North American business and uncertainty around tariffs in Asia, the company said in a business update last week.
The facility, where TT Electronics leases about 30,000 square feet of space, per CoStar data, is expected to close by the end of October. However, the company said it plans to begin cutting all 75 of its employees at the facility beginning on Aug. 31 "due to lack of scheduled work," officials told the Texas Workforce Commission.
Representatives for TT Electronics did not respond to an email request for comment from CoStar News.