{"id":469341,"date":"2025-12-24T19:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T19:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469341\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T19:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T19:08:16","slug":"the-top-dallas-fort-worth-business-stories-of-2025-hint-at-whats-coming-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469341\/","title":{"rendered":"The top Dallas-Fort Worth business stories of 2025 hint at what\u2019s coming for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas-Fort Worth economy<\/a> is ending 2025 in a much different manner than it began.<\/p>\n

In a year that started with all eyes on Washington, D.C. and an incoming (and repeat) Trump Administration<\/a>, North Texas carved its own path, reshaping the business landscape for years to come. Here are a few of the biggest stories of 2025:<\/p>\n

January\u2019s Department store disruption<\/p>\n

Once a bellwether of the retail world, Plano-based JCPenney in January said that it was merging with Sparc Group<\/a> to form Catalyst Brands, bringing in names such as A\u00e9ropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand and Nautica.<\/p>\n

February and March bring downtown disruption<\/p>\n

Longtime Dallas-based luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus, which was acquired in 2024 by Saks Global, announced<\/a> and then unannounced<\/a> that it would close its iconic downtown department store. The move was a blow to downtown leaders and city officials in an era when the central business district is being displaced as the region\u2019s business and cultural epicenter.<\/p>\n

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Texas is data center central<\/p>\n

Texas became the hotbed for the data center boom this year, with dozens of companies announcing plans for these energy-sucking, AI-enabling facilities. Gasoline was thrown on an already sizzling market when OpenAi announced its Stargate initiative<\/a> in February. This adds to major North Texas data center projects from players such as Meta, Google and Nvidia partners Aligned and Wistron.<\/p>\n

DFW (Airport) keeps growing<\/p>\n

After more than six years of discussions \u2014 delayed by new economic realities after the COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 DFW International Airport and American Airlines finalized a deal for a super-sized $4 billion Terminal F<\/a>, the first new terminal since 2005. The upsized plans will include 31 new gates, exclusively occupied by Fort Worth-based American. The first phase should open in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u2018How\u2019s that working for ya,\u2019 Dr. Phil?<\/p>\n

Celebrity TV problem solver Phil McGraw saw his North Texas-based startup Merit Street Media crumble in 2025 and file for bankruptcy<\/a>, starting a contentious, fireworks-filled and often baffling court battle<\/a> with partners such as Professional Bull Riders and Trinity Broadcasting Network. It was more entertaining than the famous Dr. Phil \u201cCash Me Outside\u201d episode<\/a>.<\/p>\n

D-FW bank bought for $10.9B<\/p>\n

Dallas-based banking giant Comerica was purchased by Ohio\u2019s Fifth Third Bancorp <\/a>in a $10.9 billion deal. Fifth Third was essentially buying its way into the Texas market, alongside branches in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Texas.<\/p>\n

Too many stories to count<\/p>\n

These are just a few of the major storylines. There is also the drama about a Dallas ranch real estate agent killed by a buffalo<\/a> during a hunt in South Africa, numerous real estate deals and residential expansions, arena searches by Dallas\u2019 NBA<\/a> and NHL teams that turned into a soap opera<\/a>. A Muslim-centric development near Josephine <\/a>gained national notoriety from politicians railing against the project. <\/p>\n

National economic storylines such as international import tariffs<\/a> and more aggressive national immigration enforcement<\/a> efforts all reshaped the North Texas economy, too.<\/p>\n

One thing was consistent. The Dallas-Fort Worth economy kept chugging along, adding some 42,600 jobs<\/a> between the beginning of the year and the end of the third quarter. The more things change, the more they stay the same.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a>Great American Media CEO on new lineup, putting the \u2018Christ\u2019 in Christmas movies<\/a><\/p>\n

The growing Arlington media company says Christian audiences are underinvested in by mainstream entertainment media.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fall despite slow hiring<\/a><\/p>\n

Economists expect unemployment rates to remain high in December.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/a>GameStop closes only store in the city of its headquarters in North Texas<\/a><\/p>\n

The retailer has been shutting down shops by the hundreds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas-Fort Worth economy is ending 2025 in a much different manner than it began. In a year…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":469342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,64,79,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-469341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115776121025879066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}