The company that prints trading cards for Pokémon, Wizards of the Coast and other game makers at a plant in southern Dallas is asking for help from a city-controlled fund to pay for new equipment, and the City Council is scheduled to decide on Nov. 10.
Under the proposal, the Dallas Development Fund would commit up to $11 million of its $55 million New Markets Tax Credit allocation to an expansion at Cartamundi Dallas, 5101 Highland Place Drive in Council District 3. Regions Bank is also a party to the transaction, according to an Oct. 27 memo to the council's Economic Development Committee from Assistant City Manager Robin Bentley.
The fund's board approved the allocation on Aug. 10.
What the money buys
The memo says the financing would help pay for larger offset presses, card-cutting equipment and machines that wrap products in flow packaging, plus building work needed to support the new machines at the existing factory. Cartamundi USA has run its U.S. headquarters from the site since 2009. Its customers, the memo says, include Wizards of the Coast, Ravensburger, Pokémon, Bandai and Asmodee.
The parent company, Cartamundi Group, is a family-owned firm based in Belgium.
City staff expect the project to support 250 full-time-equivalent jobs once it is running at full capacity: 120 existing positions kept and 130 new ones, including press technicians, operators on the production floor and quality control staff. The average wage would be $29.44 an hour, with health, dental and vision coverage, a retirement plan with a 6% employer match, profit sharing and paid leave.
About 70% of the positions would not require a four-year degree, and the company plans to prioritize hiring from the surrounding area, including people with barriers to employment, according to the memo.
