Ivanhoe Village-based fabrication lab, Factur (Facebook | Website) has announced that it will be closing up shop after this weekend.
The tool-sharing space opened in a vacant warehouse at 520 Virginia Avenue [GMap] back in 2014, next to Hideaway Bar. It provided local makers and tinkerers access to high-tech tools and space for their projects for a monthly membership fee. Members would get access to 3-D printers, laser cutters, and various power tools that may have been too cost prohibitive for them to own themselves and they provided space to fabricate projects onsite.
Our mobile social distancing bar units were created at Factur by a local woodworker.
According to Jacqui Cantu, the executive director at Factur, the space just couldn’t rebound after the pandemic shutdown, saying, “After COVID, it was just too tough. We’re down to just eight active members and that’s not enough to keep the doors open.”
Factur’s building is slated to be demolished as part of the Ivanhoe at Brookhaven project that will also see its next-door neighbor, The Hideaway Bar, demolished as well, but not until their new restaurant home is complete across Virginia Avenue. More on that HERE.
Cantu shared with Bungalower that they were unable to find the right space but that they could be interested in opening a similar concept in a few years.
Factur will be hosting an equipment and tool sale this weekend on Saturday, July 8, and Sunday, July 9 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. to liquidate everything onsite. Anything that fails to sell this weekend will be saved to be sold online at a later date.
