Philly Tech News Facilities Roundup: Who's moving or expanding? (4/9/2012)

Tom Paine

Real estate decisions (leases, expansions, new buildings or offices) are often a good indicator of what's happening within a company or industry. This periodic Philly Tech News feature is a roundup of recent facilities news involving Philly area tech firms.

NextFab Studio, Philadelphia 's high-tech workshop and prototyping center featuring 3D printers and other design and fabrication tools, will be holding a preview party for NextFab2, its larger second location on April 19 from 6 to 9pm. The building, at 2025 Washington Ave in the Southwest Center City / Graduate Hospital neighborhood, was formerly a custom ironwork shop which is being reconfigured by Philadelphia architecture and design firm inHabit. The new studio will feature more advanced and a greater variety of equipment, private studios with 24/7 facility access, and a cafe at street level. The original NextFab studio in University City will continue to operate and there may be expansion plans for it, a spokesperson for the organization indicates. NextFab2 plans to open in July. Tickets for the preview party are available here for a small fee.

Technically Philly's Yael Borofsky took an insightful look at the exploding co-working, incubator and accelerator scene in Philly and asks whether some of it, at least, is a sign that a bubble is emerging.

NJTechWeekly.com's Esther Surden (a Philly Tech News contributor) has an article on Synchronoss' move to a larger headquarters in Bridgewater, NJ. Synchronoss, the company that helps many consumers activate their smartphones and tablets, resisted overtures from other states to stay in New Jersey, CEO Stephen Waldis told NJTechWeekly.com. The publicly traded company has moved to an 88,000-square-foot space vacated by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Aventis in the Bridgewater Crossing office park. Though Waldis said “typically our engineering is done out of our [Bethlehem] Pa. location and offshore”, they are also beginning to build an engineering team in New Jersey. The company has 1,000 employees worldwide, and a market capitalization of over $1 billion.

A bit further north in Jersey, HR SaaS vendor iCIMS has moved to a new headquarters in Matawan, NJ, just up the road from its previous location in Hazlet. iCims, which says it currently has 200+ employees, plans to increase staff by almost 25% in 2012. The company announced a $35 million minority investment from Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLC (SGE) earlier in the year.

On Thursday April 12th at 11:30 AM, the Free Library of Philadelphia will launch its new Techmobile “Hot Spot on Wheels” at Rowan House in West Philadelphia, with the help of Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter and Adel Ebeid, The City of Philadelphia’s Chief Innovation Officer. The Free Library Techmobile is a 25-foot van outfitted with six computers, all necessary broadband equipment, and a trained assistant who will provide computer training classes as well as one-on-one assistance during open-access time. The Techmobile will help the Free Library reach areas of the Philadelphia community that are not close to a library branch or one of the six stationary hot spots the library began launching last April. It was made possible by funds from the Federal Broadband Technologies Opportunities (BTOP) grant.

Micro Strategies says it is in the final stages of completing the certification process to establish a Microsoft Experience Center in its Malvern office, as well as in Denville, NJ. Micro Strategies descibes Microsoft Experience Centers as giving "Business and Technology Decision Makers the opportunity to test-drive the Microsoft business productivity platform in a real-life environment. Designed to enhance an understanding of available Microsoft technologies, the hands-on sessions offer the best way to learn about Microsoft business productivity tools and technologies without any sales pressure, long demos, or redundant presentations".



permalink