SPRINGFIELD — TenFold Engineering wants to revolutionize the construction of modular structures from Vermont’s once-storied precision manufacturing hub.
The Springfield company is working to build expandable, collapsible, steel-framed buildings that could be used for offices, retail and housing. Shrinking to the size of a 20-foot shipping container, each unit would unfold itself, making it easily transported and deployed.
The idea of movable and customizable housing has resonated widely, said David Jaacks, TenFold’s president. As housing and construction costs rise, the concept of a comfortable mobile home accessible to its owner becomes more appealing.
Perhaps that’s why TenFold has received 30,000 inquiries from interested buyers.
“A lot of the inbound interest that we do receive is, of course, for single-occupancy housing. But then we also have gotten a tremendous amount of interest from both businesses and government agencies,” said Sean Kennedy, the company’s director of business development.
The diversity of applications has posed the question: How best to market TenFold’s products? “It’s a blessing and curse in a way,” he said.
The company, though, won’t initially cater to prospective homeowners, according to Kennedy. Instead, it plans to market its structures to businesses, which could purchase the pods at scale.
TenFold hopes to be manufacturing its 450-square foot units, heated by radiant heat mats, by the year’s end, Jaacks said, and expects to make 50 units in its first year. He’d expected to go to market sooner after buying the once-United Kingdom-based TenFold and its original design plans in 2020 and moving the company to Vermont. Instead, the company has spent the last year honing the unit’s design, cutting its weight by 25,000 pounds, and perfecting a 45-pound hinge that helps the structure unfurl.
Though subject to fluctuating material costs, the business expects to sell the structure for just under $160,000, or about $350 per square foot.
The manufacturing will occur in TenFold’s nearly 50,000-square-foot facility on North Springfield’s Precision Drive. Earlier this year, the company received a $500,000 capital improvement grant from the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development. That money, which came from federal Covid-19 relief funds, will help modernize TenFold’s manufacturing space, bringing jobs to Springfield.
Jaacks sees the state’s support as a vital sign of Vermont’s commitment to a future of manufacturing. That support, he said, helps assure investors that the state values TenFold’s business. And if the grant wasn’t enough of a signal, Jaacks and Kennedy recently attended an aerospace conference in Montreal as representatives from Vermont, picked by state leaders.
Few think of Vermont as a modern manufacturing hub, and Springfield’s days as the precision machine tool capital of the world are long gone, leaving abandoned factories in their wake. But the manufacturing sector accounts for about 10% of Vermont’s non-farm jobs, and grew 3.5% in 2021, according to the state Department of Labor.
“Innovative manufacturing is still one of the largest employment sectors in this labor market area, if not the largest,” said Bob Flint, executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp. He pointed to Ivek Corp., a liquid metering instruments manufacturer on Precision Drive, as evidence of the sector’s continued success in Springfield.
“That manufacturing expertise has a direct tie in my mind to the machine tool industry,” he said.
Jaacks is not a newcomer to Springfield. His earlier venture, Konrad Prefab, is also based there, and has manufactured private breastfeeding pods for the Burlington-based firm Mamava.
While TenFold has only eight employees, Jaacks anticipates 120 working in Springfield as the business scales up. While he stressed that there are already many highly qualified people nearby, Jaacks sees Vermont’s quality of life as an attractive force for recruiting the employees he’ll need for the future.
“When we think about young people or highly trained individuals who were in other parts of the country, maybe they’d like to be in Vermont,” Jaacks said, “and enjoy building a really exciting project, but then also enjoy mountain biking, and skiing, and all the things that we have to offer.”
If TenFold can thrive in its “underutilized industrial property” in Springfield — a feature of towns across the state — Jaacks thinks it could be the bellwether of future innovative manufacturing in Vermont. “It’s a challenge, but it’s a challenge that is not insurmountable,” he said.
