Syracuse is home to Density’s new manufacturing facility

SYRACUSE — Garrett Bastable, VP of operations at Density, Inc., provided a story to begin his remarks at the formal-opening of the company’s new manufacturing plant.

A group of Syracuse University graduates in March 2014 were helping to operate a software consultancy in the Tech Garden. The group of would-be co-founders of Density, also liked getting coffee from Café Kubal, 

As Bastable explains it, they would often find that the location on South Salina Street was full of patrons and the line to get coffee was long. He also notes that the group would sometimes make their walk to get coffee in the cold, winter weather of Syracuse. 

“It dawned on them that if we have a way to know the weather anywhere in the world, we should also have a way to know a busy space was a few blocks away,” said Bastable. “This is how Density was born.” 

Density, a tenant of the Syracuse Tech Garden, on March 8 opened its new 21,000-square-foot manufacturing facility inside the Whitlock building at 550 S. Clinton St. in Syracuse. 

Density describes itself as an analytics platform for measuring and optimizing workplace performance. Density’s technology allows for anonymous measurement of how people use space, “creating better workplace experiences,” per a news release.

The company also made headlines in June 2019 when it became the first Tech Garden tenant to use the facility’s hardware center. 

Destiny discovered the Whitlock building in the spring of 2020 as it was searching for its future home in upstate New York, Bastable recalled during his remarks at the March 8 event. 

The South Clinton Street building is located near the Salt City Market.

“Though it was [in] mid-construction at the time, we saw great promise in the Whitlock building, thanks to the vision and substantial investments made by Tom and Ryan Goodfellow of Goodfellow Construction Management,” Bastable said. 

Two years later, the firm is operating in the same structure. 

In addition to expanding its production capabilities by seven times to nearly 400,000 sensors per year. Density foresees housing its future offices, labs, warehouse, shipping, and receiving centers all within the downtown Syracuse building.

“Amazingly, with solar on the roof above us, Density’s sensor production will be powered by the sun,” Bastable said in his remarks. 

The product that Density employees will research, design, develop, build, and ship from this facility will reach customers around the world. The company is already shipping tens of thousands of devices to more than 40 countries, he noted. 

In speaking with CNYBJ after the ribbon cutting, Bastable said Destiny still has research and development (R&D) operations in the Tech Garden.

“We still have our R&D labs in the Tech Garden. We still have our original anchor office there, and we have the hardware center that we’re considering repurposing for additional R&D activity,” says Bastable. “As our business expands, having some physical diversity in where we locate is also helpful.”

Since launching in 2014, Density has raised more than $225 million in funds from investors and is now valued at $1.05 billion, a figure that Bastable called “staggering” during his remarks to open the event. It makes Density the “first home grown unicorn in Syracuse.” A unicorn in the investment world is a privately held business valued at more than $1 billion.

The business now has nearly 200 employees across 29 states and eight countries, including about 30 in Syracuse. Even though it is headquartered in San Francisco, Bastable called Syracuse Density’s “hometown.” He said the March 8 opening of the manufacturing facility represents the firm’s effort “to embark on our next stage of growth in the same city [where] it all started.”