Dallas News
June 12, 2018
A Dutch commercial printing company is considering investing up to $50 million in southern Dallas to build a manufacturing facility that could create hundreds of jobs.
The Dallas City Council is set to vote on a proposal, dubbed Project Apollo, to offer nearly $1.7 million in economic development incentives for the project by Vistaprint, a mass-customized business card and marketing materials company, the council’s agenda for its June 13 meeting shows.
If it materializes, the project could provide a boost to a part of Dallas County plagued by high poverty and unemployment rates. Vistaprint plans to create or relocate 625 full-time jobs in the area, as well as 125 seasonal jobs, with an overall median wage of $40,000 a year. Salaried jobs could pay up to $76,000 a year.
Vistaprint is considering a 322,000-square-foot manufacturing facility north of Lancaster, in the so-called International Inland Port of Dallas. The manufacturing, warehousing and logistics hub is near three major interstate highways (I-35E, I-20 and I-45) and a Union Pacific rail terminal.
Large multinational companies including Amazon and L’Oréal already have operations in the southern Dallas County area where Vistaprint proposes to build its facility.
Vistaprint estimates that Phase I — 200,000 square feet, with investment of $15 million — would be completed by the end of 2019. The final phase is expected to be completed by 2023.
The economic incentives proposal from Dallas includes $1.3 million in property tax abatements for up to 10 years for Vistaprint Manufacturing Texas and project developer Becknell Industrial Operating Partnership. Becknell would develop the land and lease it to Vistaprint for 10 years with an option for the company to buy the plot outright.
The city’s economic development incentives package also includes up to $300,000 in Chapter 380 economic development grants to assist Vistaprint with workforce training programs for Dallas workers.
Dallas estimates that the project would generate net revenue of more than $1.8 million over 10 years.
The council will vote on the incentives package next Wednesday.
The facility would be built in a ZIP code (75241) at the heart of southern Dallas County’s struggling economy. The area west of the Trinity River Audubon Center has a poverty rate of above 24 percent, about 6 percentage points higher than the county as a whole. Median household income is around $33,000, almost $20,000 less than the countywide median.
