Frisco has made national headlines for its string of high-profile corporate relocations, attracting major employers like Keurig Dr Pepper, TIAA, McAfee and most recently, Toyota Financial — the last of which is the largest announced move in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the past two years.
"Frisco is on quite a successful run with our corporate job relocation," said Mayor Jeff Cheney in a LinkedIn post. But while the wins are worth celebrating, he’s also focused on the near-misses — the deals that almost came through but didn’t — and how Frisco can change that.
What Frisco Did Right
What remained consistent among the successes when it came to these major relocations was why Frisco was the perfect spot. According to Cheney, executives cited Frisco’s vibrant developments as key to attracting top talent and encouraging employees to return to the office.
Relocation decisions, executives noted, are now increasingly influenced by employee experience rather than executive preference. Companies are no longer moving to locations based solely on where the C-suite wants to live; instead, HR directors now have a seat at the table, prioritizing quality of life for the broader workforce.
Cheney credits the city’s strategy of developing vibrant, mixed-use districts, like The Star, as a key driver behind Frisco’s recent success. “None of these high-paying jobs come to Frisco without the vision to create high-quality destination developments anchored by assets like The Star,” he said.
Why Frisco Is Losing New Deals To Nashville
But even with all of that, Frisco has consistently come up short in one specific area.
"The story nobody ever hears are the deals we have lost," Cheney says. “There have been some painful Fortune 500 losses we thought we had. It seems the last few years every major deal comes down to Frisco and Nashville, and unfortunately, Nashville has been beating us out on these deals.”
"The story nobody ever hears are the deals we have lost."
The reason, he said, is strikingly consistent. "The common thread is companies that want their employees to have access to arts and culture. The exit interviews all sound the same… Frisco has it all… except for that."
Meanwhile, Nashville boasts a thriving and diverse arts scene. Renowned as "Music City," it lives up to its name with an eclectic mix of music genres, performance venues, and artistic expressions that fuel its creative energy.
Despite cultural attractions like HALL Park’s sculpture garden, Kaleidoscope Park, and the Academy of Country Music Awards — which has made Frisco its home for nearly three years — the city still doesn’t quite measure up.
Closing The Cultural Gap
That missing piece, Cheney believes, could soon be resolved. "The Frisco Center for the Arts is absolutely an economic development project and will help catapult Frisco into an unstoppable force in business attraction," he said. "Let’s change the narrative to ‘Frisco has it all.’"
"Let’s change the narrative to ‘Frisco has it all.’"
The proposed Frisco Center for the Arts would feature Broadway-caliber performances, national tours, concerts, community events and student productions. It's designed not just as a theater, but as an engine for economic and cultural development.
“This is our moment to lay the foundation for a cultural renaissance in Frisco,” Cheney previously said. “Let’s seize this chance to create a legacy for our children and grandchildren — a place where creativity thrives, our economy grows and our community shines.”
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