State Farm just finished its fourth and final tower in the CityLine complex, completing a three-year project located off the President George Bush Turnpike and Central Expressway in Richardson. But the development is still only halfway built out.

It is a city within a city. Along with State Farm, there are dozens of new restaurants, businesses and apartments. More residential complexes and eateries are under construction, along with an Aloft hotel and movie theater. There are also plans for a park with hiking and biking trails.

For State Farm, the central location and access to a DART rail station on-site helped make the decision.

The company currently employs 6,500 people on the CityLine campus, but is adding more.

Recruiting manager Chris Martin said they will have brought in close to 2,300 new employees in 2016. Martin said the hiring and growth will continue into the next year, covering a variety of positions.



John Jacobs, executive vice president of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce, said the CityLine development used to be a huge patch of grass – with huge potential.

Jacobs said the city has been hoping – and planning – for such growth and is now about 96 percent built out.



“Everything from here on out will be built up,” Jacobs said.



To combat traffic and congestion, the city installed traffic signals and deceleration lanes.

Still, there are growing pains.



For Richardson native Mai Shedd, the change is good – and the traffic is a necessary evil.

“There are a lot of new restaurants that haven’t been here before and there’s a lot of things to do here now,” Shedd said. “But there are a lot of people here now, so getting here through the traffic can be a little bit of a hassle.”

State Farm occupies approximately 2.2 million square feet of space within its four towers. According to developer KDC, there will be more than five million square feet of office space when it is fully built.

CityLine will eventually have about 30,000 people who “live, work and play” there.