Growing 3D-Printing Startup Takes Full Floor at 419 Park Avenue South
By Al Barbarino July 19, 2013 3:55 pm
reprints3D-printing firm Shapeways has signed a 10-year, 9,050-square-foot renewal and expansion at 419 Park Avenue South, giving the rapidly-growing company a full ninth floor presence.
The firm moved into the building roughly two years ago and upped its original space by just over 1,000-square feet in December of last year, before adding an additional 3,950 square feet in the latest amendment to the lease, brokers said.
“It’s an ideal location and we got a great deal,” Steven Blair Strati of Cushman & Wakefield (CWK), who represented the tenant, told The Commercial Observer, noting that asking rents were $55 per square foot but that a sweeter deal was worked out. “It’s a nice open plan where everybody integrates and where they have meetings, conferences and brainstorming sessions.”
The new lease also includes expansion rights for two additional floors; venture capital firm Union Square Ventures announced a $30 million round of financing in April and is bent on Shapeways’ growth and success in the industry.
“They’re growing and being funded by their partner and their partner wants to see them grow and be the leader in this industry – not just the follower,” Mr. Strati said.
3D printing gives designers – experienced and novice alike – the ability to design a digital model and turn those models into a tangible creation. The technology has been used in a range of industries as diverse as aerospace and jewelry-making.
Shapeways allows consumers to design a digital model, select materials and after a series of steps on the firm’s website can have the 3D-printed creation delivered to their door.
Early last winter, Mr. Strati found Shapeways a 25,000-square-foot home for its industrial 3D-printing facility at 30-02 48th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, which is operational but still under construction. The Manhattan location is more like the factory for ideas, “where the A-team hangs out,” he said.
Because digital production technologies have the potential to manufacture objects with speed, precision and a personal touch, some have speculated that 3D-printing stores may begin to pop up in every neighborhood, just as the blacksmiths and carpenters of old once did.
“It’s really the factory of the future,” Mr. Strati said.
The 20-story building at 419 Park Avenue South is roughly 160,000 square feet. Among other tenants in the building is Grind, a co-working space that opened its doors back in 2011.
Landlord Walter & Samuels Inc. was represented in-house by Jim Gladstone. Mr. Gladstone did not return calls seeking comment in time for publication.
