GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY TO UNVEIL PLANS FOR PHANTOM PARK
Phantom EFX, Barmuda Corporation and T8 Design to relocate to Industrial Park
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – September 30, 2008 – Phantom EFX, Barmuda Corporation, and T8 Design broke ground September 26 on a new $4 million building project that will serve as their headquarters in the Cedar Falls Technology Park.
The 54,000-square-foot facility named Phantom Park will be located at the corner of Technology Parkway and Chancellor Drive and is scheduled for completion in spring of 2009. The facility will include professional office suites along with warehouse and light manufacturing space to accommodate Phantom’s and Barmuda’s Distribution operations. The company’s previous building on 209 Roosevelt St. was destroyed in the floods of 2008 and the companies have been forced to relocate since that time.
Darin Beck, manager for the project and owner and CEO of Barmuda MMC and Barmuda Distribution, is also a owner/partner in Phantom EFX and T8Design. “These new headquarters will allow the companies to grow and be a showcase facility for our national and global clients. I’m very excited that we have finally broken ground,” said Beck. “Phantom Park will be a world-class facility for us and will accommodate our growing companies for years to come.”
Founded in 1998, Phantom EFX is the leading game developer and publisher of interactive card, slots, and casino entertainment titles for PC and Mac. Phantom is also an intellectual property developer for casino gaming companies, the iPhone and other mobile platforms.
An artist’s rendering of what the completed Phantom Park will look like. Construction is estimated to be completed by spring of 2009.
Phantom EFX owner/partner and CEO Aaron Schurman said, “Phantom Park will enable us to capitalize on the synergy we have between all of the companies and will serve as a prestigious headquarters for our global operations we can all be proud of.”
Phantom EFX, along with its warehouse and distribution divisions, will occupy 30,000 square feet and will feature a high-tech environment that will be helpful to recruit and retain employees nationally and internationally. With the ever-growing casino gaming market and Phantom’s ever growing importance in the gaming industry, Phantom felt it was necessary to take the companies image to the next level. Phantom EFX distributes PC games world-wide and soon will boast titles on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Barmuda MMC, founded by Darin Beck in 1986, is Iowa’s dining and entertainment leader with eighteen different restaurants, nightclubs and lounges, including a new catering company and two event centers. The downtown Waterloo Bourbon Street, Voodoo Lounge, and Sky Event Center are under construction now. Another new Bourbon Street and Voodoo Lounge are scheduled to open in Grinnell, Iowa in October. The new properties are included in the eighteen stated. Barmuda will occupy 15,000 square feet of the building and feature a modern facility to showcase its F&B and distribution operations.
Barmuda CEO and owner Darin Beck said, “We’re planning for more rapid growth. We were in the middle of adding a new wing of office suites in our old building when the flood came. The new building will provide us with the ability to grow in a much easier way than before. But most important to me is the ability to have all of our companies back together again under one roof. We have an incredibly talented group of people in all three companies and the synergy between us makes for some very remarkable chemistry. We have missed that since being displaced by the flood.”
Beck said the new facility was prompted by the loss of the former building in the flood of 2008 and without the city’s diligence, none of this would have been possible. “We are very pleased with everyone’s efforts including the Mayor, City Council, City staff and especially Bob Seymour, Community Services Manager for the City of Cedar Falls,” added Beck. “Bob was a Godsend in the whole process and I’m very proud of our city for making this all happen so quickly.”
When completed, the project will be home to the fast-growing T8Design, a web-based technology company serving the banking industry as well as Fortune 500 companies such as John Deere, Nike, Adobe and others. T8Design will occupy 5,000 square feet and boast having a direct fiber connection to the Team Data Center. This will allow T8 to have direct access to its servers and infrastructure.
T8Design owner/partner and CEO, Wade Arnold is excited to be a part of the new Phantom Park. “Our business compliments Barmuda and Phantom quite nicely,” said Arnold. “Being able to have T8’s partners headquartered in the same building is simply an amazing accomplishment I wouldn’t have thought possible. The flood is bringing us all together in ways we couldn’t have imagined prior to June.”
According to Dan Levi, the project’s architect and Owner of Levi & Associates of Cedar Falls, the building will be placed on three lots in the technology park, plus a portion of two more. “The front of the building will be dominated by glass, steel and limestone and a great deal of green space, initially used for landscaping, that eventually will be used for business expansion. The remaining 4,000 square feet are comprised of a shared board room, training facility and restrooms as well as vending and break areas. It will certainly be a beautiful new building for the already successful Technology Park.”
Combined employment of Phantom EFX, T8 Design, Barmuda and all of its affiliated companies is approximately 560 people throughout the Cedar Valley. Around 100 people will work at the new headquarters building. It is expected that the combined growth of all the companies will be around 200-300 people in the next two or three years.
