Old EDS ‘God Pod’ to be imploded for AT&T’s new billion-dollar HQ

Sunday marks the end of an era and the start of something new in Plano.

Additional portions of the old Electronic Data Systems campus, including the futuristic executive office building dubbed the “God Pod,” will be imploded Sunday morning. The demolition is no surprise. Telecommunications giant AT&T planned to demolish the entire slate of buildings and parking garages to build its new billion-dollar-plus global headquarters at 5400 Legacy Drive.

Plano officials told The Dallas Morning News “a planned controlled demolition” will take place on Parkwood Boulevard between Legacy Drive and Democracy Drive around 8 a.m. 

AT&T declined to comment on the demolition. KDC, the developer of AT&T’s campus, said construction is underway and demolition has begun at the site’s north end. The company declined to provide any additional details. 

EDS’ move to Plano in the late 1980s was the first in a flurry of moves that helped establish the Collin County suburb as a headquarters hotspot. EDS founder Ross Perot purchased 2,700 acres in west Plano to establish the master-planned Legacy business park.

For his son, real estate developer Ross Perot Jr., the site holds special memories. He learned to fly a helicopter there, and he remembers riding horses when the Plano parcels his father owned were just raw land. Perot Jr. said he toured the old EDS site a few months back with AT&T CEO John Stankey just before demolition began. Perot Jr. said he won’t attend Sunday’s implosion.

“It’s the end of a great era,” Perot Jr. said. “AT&T will build a landmark that we will all be proud of.”

After EDS came, Frito-Lay and JCPenney followed. The big-name companies announced in the late 1980s that they, too, would move their operations to Plano.

EDS started moving into the Plano campus in 1985. After a spat with General Motors CEO Roger Smith, GM bought out Perot and a handful of other EDS executives for about $750 million in 1986. They left EDS, and Perot eventually started rival Perot Systems.

By 1993, the campus was finished, and the move was complete. The campus’ centerpiece was the futuristic “God Pod” — an executive office building with a grand reception lobby 55 feet above the ground. EDS was spun off by GM in 1996. Mergers and acquisitions put the property in the hands of Hewlett-Packard and later DXC Technology.

Dallas-based NexPoint bought the headquarters in 2018 and planned to make the campus the centerpiece of the Texas Research Quarter until AT&T came along. The telecommunications giant announced in January that it would build its 54-acre global headquarters at 5400 Legacy Drive.

Demolition started at the site a couple of months ago. Plano approved a $20 million incentive package and a lengthy property tax rebate to support AT&T’s relocation from downtown Dallas. It is the largest incentive package Plano has given a private employer to date.

AT&T must spend at least $1.35 billion in construction costs on the project. The firm must also build a minimum of 2 million square feet of office, amenity and retail space at the site, eventually employ 10,000 full-time workers at the property and occupy the planned headquarters for 25 years.

Stankey previously said the firm could partially occupy the new campus by the second half of 2028.

As part of the demolition, Parkwood Boulevard between Legacy Drive and Tennyson Parkway and Legacy Drive between Parkwood Boulevard and Hedgcoxe Road will be closed at 7 a.m and are expected to reopen around 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

“If a nearby resident or business hears the demolition or feels a brief vibration, there is no need to call 9-1-1. This demolition activity is planned. Police, fire-rescue and other city personnel will be on site throughout the operation,” Plano officials said.