High-Tech Manufacturing Firm Moves To Peekskill From California

PEEKSKILL, NY — A high-tech, light manufacturing company has moved from California to Peekskill. The move was celebrated Monday when New York Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul and Peekskill Mayor Andre Rainey joined Bre Pettis, CEO of Bantam Tools, to cut the ribbon on the new manufacturing facility on North Water Street.

Bantam Tools produces hardware and software to help designers and engineers explore the frontier of digital fabrication. The Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling Machine is the company’s flagship product.

Pettis purchased the company in 2017 and has been working toward bringing it east from the San Francisco area for the past two years.

"I grew up in Ithaca, then lived in Seattle, NYC, Croton-on-Hudson," he told Patch, extolling Peekskill's natural beauty. "When I bought a company on the West Coast, I had to figure out where to put it I knew Peekskill was the place to go."

For one thing, he said, "The diversity in Peekskill is great. Companies work best when they have a diverse workforce. On top of that it's an affordable place to live. My employees can work here. They can think about buying a house here. We wanted to be in a place where we can be resilient and work for a long time together."

For another: "I'm looking out the window, I see the Riverfront Park, the Hudson River. It's just so gorgeous here."

Bantam Tools now has 12 employees, he said, and is hiring.

The manufacturing facility will eventually employ around 50 designers, engineers, technicians, assembly workers, marketing and sales staff. The other three buildings at the site are being developed to house a potential maker space, tech incubator, classroom space, a ceramics manufacturing business and studio for artists and creators. The site also benefited from economic development funds from the State of New York and is zoned for light manufacturing with the WF-2 and WF-3 zones.

Pettis envisions the buildings — the company bought 135, 150, 189 and 190 N. Water Street — as being a “hub of innovation and manufacturing for the Hudson Valley.”

“The Bantam Tools manufacturing space and headquarters is just the first of four revitalized buildings in Peekskill’s new hub of innovation and manufacturing to open,” Pettis said. “To be able to manufacture our desktop CNC machines in the United States and specifically, build them in Peekskill, is a great accomplishment. Moving the company from the San Francisco Bay Area to Peekskill signifies a goal to build a sustainable tech company in the Hudson Valley — in a town with a diverse community, natural beauty and affordable living all within an easy distance to New York City— is something that is very important to helping create happy employees.”

Pettis is the former co-founder and CEO of the 3D printing company MakerBot, which he sold in 2013.

Bantam Tools makes desktop CNC machines with professional reliability and precision at an affordable price. The Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling Machine can be used by electrical engineers, designers and digital fabricators. and is used in university labs and makerspaces around the world including MIT, NYU and Stanford as well as companies and organizations such as Adafruit, Supplyframe DesignLab and all branches of the US military.

For more information on Bantam Tools and the Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling Machine, visitbantamtools.com.