Lexington Business to Leave Town

Written by Ryan Grannan-Doll and Rich Hosford

Lexington-based Vistaprint is planning to move to Waltham, according to the Boston Globe.

Vistaprint, located at 95 Hayden Avenue, offers online graphic design and printing services for both small businesses and private consumers nationwide. It also offers services such as business cards, personalized office supplies and email marketing. The Lexington office, the company's US Operations and North American Business Unit Head Office, opened in 1999. 

As reported on Lexington Patch, in November of 2012 Lexington Town Meeting approved a tax increment financing (TIF) agreement to Vistaprint and its landlord in an effort to keep the company in town. 

The TIF agreement offered 13 years of tax relief to Vistaprint and its landlord, Hobbs Brook, in exchange for an expansion to the Ledgemont campus on Hayden Avenue that would have allowed Vistapint to expand and generate more than $600,000 annually in property taxes for the town. 

According to estimates, property tax projections put the financial benefit of the Ledgemont expansion at about $7.8 million over 13 years, with the TIF offering about $1.2 million in tax relief to Vistaprint. 

However, according to the Boston Globe article, the Lexington expansion was tied up in legal litigation with a neighboring company, leading Vistaprint to seek another location. 

Now the company has proposed tearing down a vacant office complex at 275 Wyman St. in Waltham and rebuilding a new headquarters on the site, according to the Globe. 

An attorney for the project has said the company, which is previously based in Lexington, hopes to start building in the spring, according to the Globe. Vistaprint CEO Tom Dusel said he hopes to move the firm to its new site by mid-2015. 

More details at the Boston Globe.