CardWorks Servicing is a third party servicer of credit cards,debit cards and pre-funded cards. CardWorks Servicing has outboundcall centers and inbound customer care centers in both New York andPennsylvania. The New York centers will remain in Woodbury, NY, hesays. The Pennsylvania outbound call center and inbound customercare center are expected to move into Commerce Court in early July.The company leases approximately 60,000 sf in both states, Baldaufsays.

CardWorks is currently leasing space on two separate floors at441 Smithfield St., here, and wanted to consolidate to one floorfor better efficiency, he says. Commerce Court was chosen, in part,because "There are only a handful of buildings in DowntownPittsburgh that can accommodate almost 60,000 sf on a single floorplate," Baldauf says. Commerce Court is an eight-story officebuilding with approximately 378,000 sf. Forest City Enterprises,headquartered in Cleveland, acquired the building in February 2007for approximately $26.5 million, sources say. Major tenants includeWesco and MARC USA Advertising.

CardWorks also considered New York and Arizona before choosingCommerce Court to consolidate its operations, says DennisYablonsky, Department of Community and Economic DevelopmentSecretary. The company will receive a total of $468,000 infinancial incentives from the state department of community andeconomic development including a $200,000 opportunity grant,$168,000 in job creation tax credits and $100,000 in job trainingfunds. The financial incentives and "the overall cost ofoperations" were factors in the company's decision to remain inPennsylvania, Yablonsky says. Additionally, "They had a very goodexperience with their work force there," he says. CardWorks isexpected to create 56 new jobs within the next three years inaddition to retaining 245 existing positions. "This move allows usto upgrade security, technology and redundancy" in addition toproviding funds for training for employees, Baldauf says.