The Foundery, closing at City Garage, eyes east Baltimore location

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The Foundery, a maker space at City Garage, closes its doors in Port Covington on Sunday but plans to eventually reopen at a new location in east Baltimore.

Jason Hardebeck, The Foundery’s executive director, announced the closure in an email to members on Monday. Despite a “banner year” in terms of classes held and number of member visits, he wrote, the maker space could not keep operating at City Garage.

“Although we also generated record revenues, they weren’t sufficient to overcome our operating deficit. We were unable to secure additional funding and now have to cease operations in City Garage,” Hardeback wrote in his message.

In 2018, The Foundery hosted 1,000 classes and more than 10,000 member visits, according to Hardeback. When the maker space launched at City Garage roughly three years ago its goal was to become self-sustaining. But ultimately the organization was never able to accomplish that objective.

The Foundery Inc. and Sagamore Ventures LLC announced the opening of the 20,000-square-foot manufacturing and technology training center at City Garage in late September of 2015. A nonprofit founded in 2013, The Foundery describes its mission as “sparking creativity and innovation within the community” by providing access to industrial grade tools.

“This platform will give the deep-rooted creative working class that thrives here in Baltimore City a place to explore and grow their talent. We hope the Foundery in Port Covington will serve not only as a hub for innovation, but also as a center for workforce development and opportunity,” Demian Costa, partner at Plank Industries and managing partner of Sagamore Ventures, said in a statement at the time the deal was announced.

Hardeback, previously, joked about the buzzwords used to described maker spaces and what exactly they provide. Explaining the definition of a maker space in 2016 he said, “It’s what hipsters call a garage.”

The Foundery was one of the first tenants at City Garage, a former city bus depot converted into a a startup hub.  Tenants in the property currently include incubator and co-working space Betamore and Under Armour’s Lighthouse, a 35,000 square-foot design and leadership center focused on manufacturing processes.

When City Garage launched as a startup hub, Port Covington’s development team placed an emphasis on manufacturing at the site. Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, whose investments helped make projects like planned $5.5 billion redevelopment of Port Covington possible, often talks about his desire to reboot manufacturing in the U.S.

City Garage even features a backdrop with the words “Made in America” used during events, such as the ceremonial mailing of Baltimore’s bid for Amazon’s “HQ2,” and a speech by Rep. Steny Hoyer pushing Democrats’ Make it in America” plan aimed at winning back working-class voters.

While The Foundery is closing its doors at City Garage it’s not expected to be the end for the enterprise. The venture intends to start development of a new space on Central Avenue near the Fells Point and Washington Hill neighborhoods in the city.

“We aren’t finished yet, not by a long shot. We tell our members that The Foundery is a place to try new things, learn from mistakes, and try again … We’ll incorporate all those lessons learned into a new approach and be back, better than ever,” according to Hardeback.

A spokesman for Weller Development Co., which owns City Garage, said there’s no immediate plans to fill the space. But there are “several options in play.” The Port Covington development team, according to the spokesman, is also in discussions to open a “hard-skills” workforce training center at the Center for Urban Families in west Baltimore.