Wakefield Before he founded the desktop printing company MakerBot, Bre Pettis (pictured) co-founded Brooklyn’s hacker collective NYC Resistor, where MakerBot technology was first created and perfected. Since the company’s inception in 2009, it has been a leader in affordable desktop 3D printing.
Outgrowing its original Bot Farm on Dean Street in Boerum Hill, the company needed to find a new offices and turned to Glenn Markman of Cushman & Wakefield, a borough booster who lives there and represents many companies.
In 2012, MakerBot leased 31,000 square feet on the 21st floor of One MetroTech in Downtown Brooklyn for administration, engineering and marketing. But the company also needed light manufacturing space as its prime manufacturing site, known as the BotCave on Third Avenue in Brooklyn, was also now too small to keep up with worldwide demand.
In 2013, it leased and moved into 55,000 square feet at Industry City in Sunset Park, where it has 100 employees, dubbed “productors,” working to assemble its various 3D printers and other products, along with warehouse and shipping spaces. It also houses a Bot Farm where 3D prints are printed for the MakerBot store in Manhattan.
The 16-building, 6 million-square-foot Industry City complex at 148 39th St., 241 37th St. and 147 37th St. is being revitalized with fresh capital from Chelsea Market owners, Jamestown, Angelo Gordon & Co. and Belvedere Capital, and could accommodate the fast-growing company at a reasonable rent.
