Metro Mold & Design Expands, Adds Jobs

By late summer, Metro Mold & Design will take over a 100,000-square-foot building in Brooklyn Park, Minn., and will operate as a full-scale production company for the first time. Metro Mold is transferring 40 employees to the new location, and is promising 40 additional jobs at the new site. The company’s total manufacturing space will grow to 314,000 square feet; Metro Mold is closing its Rogers, Minn. headquarters but will retain its facility in Little Falls, Minn.

“We will be closer to our customers and to the metropolitan workforce,” said Greg Heinemann, CFO, who counts several of Minnesota’s medical device manufacturers among Metro Mold’s clients. He declined to name customers, but said the company has been receiving full production service requests for several years.

Metro Mold is taking advantage of an up to $600,000 in tax increment financing (TIF) offered by Brooklyn Park to remodel the existing building. According to Amy Baldwin, business developer for Brooklyn Park, unallocated TIF funds in an existing TIF district were used to make the move possible. The money will go to the Goodman Group, which owns the building, for remodeling. The build-out is expected to be complete by August.

If Metro Mold stays for at least 10 years and generates 40 jobs, the TIF debt will be forgiven. “There will definitely be a job creation component,” Baldwin said. Jobs will range from hourly paid positions ($13/hour) to those with six-figure salaries. If the job creation condition is not met, the city will have a financial claw-back in the financing agreement. Baldwin notes that the details have not yet been negotiated. If Metro Mold leaves before the 10-year term is up, the city will pro-rate a payback required of the Goodman Group.

Metro Mold specializes in rapid mold manufacturing, custom plastic injection molding, thermoset plastic molding, extrusion blow molding and precision CNC machining.