A formerly vacant downtown warehouse has become the new launchpad for a Gainesville robotics manufacturing company to take off.
Prioria Robotics Inc. moved into a previously Gainesville Regional Utilities-owned 20,000-square-foot warehouse Thursday after the city funded a $2.25 million, 14-month renovation project for the building.
Prioria manufactures small, unmanned aerial vehicles primarily for the U.S. military, said Bryan da Fronta, Prioria CEO and a UF alumnus.
The company produces airplanes with two- to five-foot wingspans and drones that could take off and land.
Da Fronta said he chose to move his company, which has been operating in Gainesville for almost 10 years, from a Wells Fargo building located at 104 N. Main St., because he needed more space for production but wanted to stay connected to downtown.
“We didn’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
Lynn Janoski, Community Redevelopment Agency finance manager, said the city purchased the warehouse from GRU for redevelopment and is renting the space to Prioria.
The long-term lease, which began Thursday, will last for seven years, she said.
Since July, Janoski said, the warehouse has gone through a transformation from industrial storeroom to a functional office space.
“The building had almost no windows,” she said. “It was pretty much an open space with plywood walls before. Just a shell — very basic.”
Janoski said the city will recoup the millions it pitched into the renovation through the lease.
“Over time, the rental revenues will pay back the investments,” she said.
Program managers Patrick Seidel, 53, left, and John Morgan, 32, discuss plans about aircraft Four Delta on Saturday at the Power District Catalyst Building east of Kelly Power Plant.
