DALLAS—The final presentation at last Thursday's RealShare Dallas, “Town Hall Power Panel: State of the Market,” featured a diverse group of dealmakers, an economist and a noted finance guru.

Danielle Dimartino Booth, advisor to Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president Richard Fisher, began the discussion with a series of slides stating the case for doing business in Dallas.

“Texas was the first to emerge from a recession,” she said, adding that CNBC typically ranks the area as the No. 1 or 2 place to do business in the country.

In addition, the area is ripe for corporate relocations, she noted, which segued nicely to a discussion about State Farm's new regional headquarters in Richardson.

KDC vice president Colin Fitzgibbons spoke about the development in the context of another large corporate relocation: Toyota.

“For State Farm, it was internal corporate strategy and the great, desirable things about Texas,” that led the company to choose Richardson for its office, Fitzgibbons said.

While State Farm's office will be urban and positioned atop a parking garage for a high-rise look, Toyota's new headquarters in Plano will have a campus feel.

Another high-profile project was discussed, if not named. Kerby Smith, vice president for development and finance at Fort Worth's Trademark Property Co., spoke about his firm's environmentally focused multi-use development, located on the Trinity River in Fort Worth. The Whole Foods Market-anchored center will be an “amenity-rich community center,” Smith said.

The development he was referring to is Waterside.

Another notable project for Trademark is the redevelopment of Victory Park, which is where the conference was located. Smith gave no further details about the development after a short video he planned to show would not work due to technical difficulties.

Other panelists in the presentation were Bill Brown, chief investment officer at Granite Properties Inc.; KC Sanjay, senior real estate economist at Axiometrics Inc. and moderator Brian O'Boyle Sr., founder and managing broker, ARA.