A rendering of a new residential and high-tech manufacturing center being built in Toronto, part of a city-supported drive to support hardware startups. | Refine Manufacturing Acceleration Process (ReMAP)

Factory 6 seeks to create a space for advanced manufacturing and hardware startups to thrive downtown A new tech-focused development under construction in Toronto aims to bring both rental housing and jobs to the city?s growing tech industry, and create a unique space to bring manufacturing back to the city.
The result of a partnership between George Brown College, MaRS Discovery District, a Toronto startup hub, and Refine Manufacturing Acceleration Process (ReMAP), this new hybrid residential and manufacturing project, going up at 440 Dufferin Street and overseen by the developer Fitzrovia, is expected to open by July 2020 in the west part of downtown Toronto. Two of the buildings will be residential, while the third will contain a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and tech incubator, called Factory 6, outfitted with plastic and metal 3D-printers, CNC milling machines, laser cutters, and other gear. The manufacturing facility will be overseen by a nonprofit that will set up a membership system to allow access by designers, students, and startups.
?Having a manufacturing hub in Toronto is important for two reasons: leveraging product design and product development in this geography; and developing new manufacturing processes in Toronto, both will ensure g...