Hallmark Cards

Hallmark Cards is best known for greeting cards, but in construction terms it is the landowner and development partner behind Crown Center, the 85-acre mixed-use district it built south of downtown Kansas City starting in the late 1960s. The family-owned company was founded in Kansas City in 1910 and still holds and operates the district, which includes offices, retail, hotels and public space. In 2026 Hallmark partnered with the Kansas City Royals on a $3 billion redevelopment of the district around a new $1.9 billion ballpark, with a stated private commitment of at least $2 billion alongside a fixed $600 million city contribution and a 30-year lease approved by council in August 2026.

Crown Center Redevelopment Corp. is the entity that carries Hallmark’s real estate work. Hallmark lists it as one of four businesses in its portfolio, alongside Hallmark, Hallmark Media and Crayola, and describes it as a real estate development company that manages the 85-acre hotel, office, entertainment and residential complex surrounding the company’s world headquarters. Anyone approaching Hallmark on a development matter is, in practice, approaching Crown Center Redevelopment Corp.

The rest of the portfolio explains the scale behind that real estate arm. Hallmark sells greeting cards, gift wrap and related products in more than 100 countries and across roughly 100,000 retailer rooftops, including company-owned and independently owned Hallmark Gold Crown stores in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland and Scotland. Crayola makes art materials and toys and operates the Crayola Experience attractions. Hallmark Media runs three cable networks – Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Mystery and Hallmark Family – plus the Hallmark Movies Now subscription streaming service. Total employment across the businesses is more than 20,000 people worldwide.

The origin story the company tells is a short one: on January 10, 1910, a teenager from Nebraska stepped off a train in Kansas City carrying two shoeboxes of picture postcards. That was J.C. Hall. Hallmark stayed private, and the company says the third generation of the Hall family is at the helm today, with family members on the board of directors. For a landowner negotiating a multi-decade district redevelopment, that ownership structure matters more than it would at a public company – there is no quarterly-earnings constituency to satisfy on a thirty-year land position.

Kansas City remains the headquarters and the center of gravity. Hallmark also operates the Hallmark Visitors Center there, open to the public, covering the company’s early history and product collaborations. For contractors, consultants and developers working the Crown Center district, the practical takeaway is that the counterparty is a privately held, family-governed company with an in-house development corporation and a century-long attachment to the specific ground it is building on.