Reinventing Manufacturing

SPOTLIGHT
New Spaces for Manufacturing
Spaces that are zoned for industrial uses are especially
scarce in dense urban areas, as many sites that were
once used for producing goods have been converted
to commercial or residential uses by cities looking to
capture greater tax receipts. Building new industrial
spaces can often be extremely expensive due to high
urban land costs, and it can sometimes be met with
significant community opposition. For these reasons,
SFMade, a San Francisco non-profit that works to support
manufacturing within the city, has developed a
program to create affordable manufacturing spaces.
Through the real estate development entity Place-
Made, SFMade is partnering with the city and private
developers to create new industrial spaces.
The first of these projects is a 56,000 square foot
“manufacturing foundry” that will house multiple
industrial tenants in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood.
The project is composed of three buildings,
one of which will be used by SFMade to provide space
to small, start-up manufacturers that otherwise would
have to spend significant capital on workspaces. The
other buildings will have ground floor industrial spaces
with compatible office uses above.
Universities are also offering up their facilities to allow
manufacturers easy access to prototyping equipment.
In Southern California, UC Irvine is home to the
non-profit RapidTech, which is equipped with fifty 3D
printing machines and other equipment that companies
can use to quickly visualize and design a product. In
addition to allowing small businesses the ability to use
prototyping equipment, RapidTech also trains community
college and university students in technical skills—
helping to bridge the skills development gap between
four-year universities and community colleges.
At UC Davis, Area 52—a new maker space—will offer
machinery and co-working space for start-ups, with a
particular focus on medical devices, agricultural technology,
robotics, energy and aerospace. The 36,000
square foot facility, located close to campus, will provide
wet labs, a fully equipped machine shop, a wind
tunnel, a composites shop and a computer lab, with the
goal of reducing the cost to start-ups of prototyping
new products. Vocational courses will also be available
for students seeking advanced manufacturing
technology skills.
SFMade is one many organizations catering to the
burgeoning “maker movement” in the Bay Area and
beyond. TechShop, an open-access makerspace with
eight locations across the country (including three Bay
Area locations), provides another example of the benefits
of shared industrial space. It offers access to laser
cutters, plastics and electronics labs, machine tools, a
wood- and metal-working shop, a textiles department,
and welding stations. It also provides comprehensive
instruction in each area. TechShop’s programs have
helped aspiring entrepreneurs to build greater knowledge
of manufacturing techniques, and they have
provided a launching point through prototyping for
numerous start-ups (including mobile payment platform
provider Square, device case maker DODOcase, and
book lamp manufacturer Lumio).