By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Grow Hays announced Friday that it has two new tenants for the Microfactory.
The $4.5 million, 30,000-square-foot facility was opened in March 2024, but has not had any manufacturing tenants until now.
The MicroFactory is meant to be a space where manufacturers can rent at a lower-than-market rate as they launch new businesses or product lines.
The two new tenants were set to start their leases in July, but the names of those businesses have yet to be released.
One of the tenants is a regional engineering firm that will be setting up a labto to test soil compaction and concrete tests, Doug Willimas, Grow Hays executive director, said.
The engineering firm will occupy about 2,500 square feet.
A Canadian manufacturer will be signing a lease in mid-July for 5,000 to 10,000 sqaure feet of the facility.
The facility has about 28,000 square feet of shop space. The facility also has about 2,000 square feet dedicated to offices.
Williams said the facility will not be quite half full once the two new companies are in place.
"We are still working with some others," WIlliams said. "We had one that did not work out because of insurance. That is one of the challenges in an incubator space like this. You have to have some level of compatibility between your tenants because they are occupying in essence the the same building."
The facility was partially funded by $2.6 million base grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce for the MicroFactory. The Patterson Family Foundation and Robert E. and Patrica Schmidt Foundation each contributed $500,000 to the project. The Innovation Center in Norton made up the gap with a loan agreement for $750,000.
Williams stressed that the Microfactory was not paid for through local tax dollars.
"The city and county have not invested a dime," Williams said. "They won't invest a dime.