JuggerBot3D Owners Buy Building for $975K

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The owners of JuggerBot3D, having just purchased one building, say they already are looking at the possibility of additional purchases to accommodate their company’s growth and that of other companies.

Yo Industrial Holdings LLC, which is owned by JuggerBot partners Zac DiVencenzo and Dan Fernback, closed Oct. 22 on its purchase of 8469 Southern Blvd., Boardman, which previously was occupied by Spirex and Xaloy. Yo Industrial Holdings purchased the 24,000-square-foot building for $975,000 in a transaction recorded Oct. 22. 

Headquartered in the Youngstown Business Incubator’s Tech Block Building #5, JuggerBot now occupies about 5,000 square feet of space there and has plans to double that, DiVencenzo, president, said. 

That expansion “is going to be great for the number of people that we currently have on staff” and what the company expects to hire over the next year, the space is insufficient “for both the quantity of our current product line that we’re building” as well as for new work, Fernback, vice president, said.  

“Over the past six to nine months, we knew that we would need to expand. Juggerbot needs to start growing into a space that allows us to build larger equipment. If you went through our facility now, you would see we’re pretty much packed into what we/re capable of doing there,” DiVencenzo said. 

The company, an original equipment manufacturer that specializes in large-format additive manufacturing systems, received a $4 million contract in February to develop equipment for the Air Force Research Laboratory and Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

Through contacts with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and Platz Realty Group, the JuggerBot partners were able to identify the Southern Boulevard building, which DiVencenxo calls a “diamond in the rough.” JuggerBot began leasing space in the building in May with the intent of eventually purchasing it. 

Based on the company’s growth, “before you know it, we’ll be looking at our next building,” Fernback said.

“We can both agree on that, and it’s not just JuggerBot,” DiVencenzo affirmed.   The two partners, who both are from the Mahoning Valley, are committed to helping other area businesses, which was one of the intentions behind forming the holding company, he said. JuggerBot recently marked 10 years in business. 

“This is our time to show that we’re expanding, that we’re growing, and that there’s other companies that will be growing and expanding here as well,” he said. 

“The idea of cohabitation is fruitful for not just us, but just anyone else who is looking to grow and not ready to commit to massive buildings, or don’t have all the funds to do everything, but there’s, those synergies that we can have a similar space and have similar needs,” he continued. “And we also are able to support, when needed, the growth of those businesses with within those buildings.”

Also based at Southern Boulevard is another tenant of YBI’s Tech Block Building #5, Ursa Major, which established a research-and-development center in the Southern Boulevard building to advance additive manufacturing and materials development technology for liquid rocket engines and solid rocket motors.   

Between the two companies, 75% of the space in the Boardman building is spoken for, and Fernback said he expects JuggerBot will need the remaining space. He also affirmed that JuggerBot has no plans to leave its YBI space downtown. 

“It’s set up well for what we have in the near future,” he said. 

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.