The light industrial 150 Hooper in San Francisco will have its grand opening Thursday as the Manufacturing Foundry, marking the city's first new manufacturing building in decades.
The Manufacturing Foundry is the Bay Area's first permanently affordable multi-tenant manufacturing building for local firms that hire low-income residents, according to SFMade, the nonprofit corporation whose sister nonprofit development corporation, PlaceMade, is behind its development. SFMade is involved in initiatives focused on creating and supporting a regional manufacturing ecosystem.
The four-story, 56K SF manufacturing building at 150 Hooper has tall ceilings, industrial-scale power, two loading docks, indoor bike parking, a truck-accessible breezeway and public open space.
It is part of a larger mixed-use campus that includes Kilroy Realty's 100 Hooper, which has office space leased by Adobe, and light manufacturing space.
Tenant companies at 150 Hooper commit to having at least 60% of their employees qualify as low-income prior to being hired. In exchange, SFMade charges affordable rents of less than half the going rate. Manufacturing tenants in the building are Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery, APROE, Swope Design Solutions, Dawson Custom Workroom, Yorkland and Nomiku. Nonprofit community-based training, manufacturing and prototyping studio Humanmade is also on-site.
According to SFMade, the Manufacturing Foundry addresses two of the city's biggest concerns: the need for affordable manufacturing space and the need for quality jobs that build wealth for low-income residents.
