"It's projected we'll exceed Chicago as the third largest metro in the country by 2030." Ken Malcolmson gives the mechanics, not the brochure.

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DFW Airport is third in the world by passenger volume behind Atlanta and Dubai and is midway through a $12 billion capital improvement project with a new Terminal F. Love Field went from a projected 8.5 million passengers to 18.5 million this year, with a $2.5 billion rebuild breaking ground in 2027. The convention center rebuild is $3.5 billion. Scotiabank came down to Charlotte or Dallas and picked Dallas for roughly a thousand jobs.

He credits culture as much as cost. Ross Perot's framing of hard advantages against soft ones, and the soft one that closes deals: Goldman Sachs came in part because the chief executive's daughter went to SMU. Fidelity now has more employees in Dallas than in Boston, Wells Fargo built a $450 million campus in Las Colinas, and Dallas will be the only city in the country with three exchanges.

He also names the weakness. Autonomy is the enemy: a 14 county region with 16 cities over 100,000 people that will not go to Austin with one voice. Plus the density argument, since almost all of the city's property tax revenue comes from downtown, Uptown and Preston Center, and the 2019 tornado that destroyed the Chamber's building and ended up funding an endowment.

Ken Malcolmson is president emeritus of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, which he led until February 1. He spent his corporate career at Humana and serves on roughly nine boards, including the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 DFW's $12 billion capital project

01:36 Passing Chicago by 2030

03:39 Ross Perot's hard advantages

04:26 "Culture wins": Goldman and SMU

11:56 Love Field: 8.5 million to 18.5

15:06 "We need to get used to more density"

17:29 The $3.5 billion convention center

30:20 "Autonomy is the enemy"

48:36 The tornado that took the building

54:06 Scotiabank picks Dallas

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