Third Ward Attracts Top 3D Printer Manufacturer

One of the leading designers and manufacturers of 3D printers opened a regional headquarters in Milwaukee this week.

Formlabs, headquartered in a suburb of Boston, has opened a Midwest regional office in the Historic Third Ward. Backed by $675,000 in income tax credits from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the company hopes to add more than 100 jobs in its Milwaukee office. It reports a current international roster of more than 800 employees. Formlabs raised $150 million from investment firm SoftBank in 2021, giving it a $2 billion valuation.

The company, in a statement, said it selected Milwaukee because of its history of advanced manufacturing and pool of available engineering and business workers.

“Simply put, Formlabs makes hardware to empower anyone to make anything, so we are thrilled to build a team in the original ‘Machine Shop of the World,’” said Luke Winston, Chief Business Officer at Formlabs, in a statement. “Milwaukee has a deep talent pool of sales and service experts, engineers and other professionals we want on our team, and the region is home to many of our current and future customers.”

The company is leasing 20,000 square feet of space at the top of the five-story Mercantile Building, 318-324 N. Water St. Its office includes an open floor plan, two showrooms, a print farm and a product display area. The building, expanded in 2017, is home to marketing firm Hanson Dodge and owned by an entity led by firm president Tim Dodge. The Formlabs space was previously briefly occupied by Digital Measures before the company was acquired by Watermark.

“Welcoming Formlabs to Wisconsin today is part of an exciting trend demonstrating a robust pandemic recovery, timely investment in our businesses, and a strong Wisconsin workforce,” said Department of Administration Secretary designee Kathy Blumenfeld in a statement. “This is great news for Milwaukee, and great news for our state.”

Blumenfeld, WEDC deputy secretary and COO Sam Rikkers, Department of City Development Commissioner Lafayette Crump, County Executive David Crowley and Milwaukee 7 (M7) co-chair Gale Klappa attended a ribbon cutting for the new office Wednesday afternoon. M7 also worked to successfully attract Formlabs to Milwaukee.

Formlabs’ printers utilize stereolithography (SLA), low-force stereolithography and selected later sintering printing techniques to deliver “affordable, industrial-quality” parts. Its entry-level, desktop printer starts at $3,750, with more advanced hardware costing several times more. The printers can be used for rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing, with uses ranging from testing new consumer electronic products to directly printing dentures. Formlabs also supplies the necessary printing material.

In July, the company reported it had sold more than 100,000 SLA printers since being founded in 2011 by three graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Formlabs, according to a 2021 release, believes the 3D printing market will expand to more than $51 billion annually by 2026.

Formlabs also has offices in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore and Hungary. The company will gain the full amount of the Wisconsin tax credits if it hires at least 150 Milwaukee employees within three years.

Photos