Future in the Making: Hidden Factories

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The video explores how America can rapidly expand manufacturing capacity - not by building new factories, but by reactivating the industrial infrastructure already sitting unused in cities like Detroit. Filming inside a 13-acre, 300,000-square-foot WWII-era campus, the host Chris Nolte explains that these aging factories still contain the rare assets modern builders struggle to access: heavy-power electrical service, industrial zoning, 50-ton cranes, truck docks, rail spurs, and 20-inch concrete floors… all features that are nearly impossible or prohibitively expensive to recreate today 

The site, now known as the 23rd Street project, has become a living example of how old manufacturing spaces can be divided into “micro-factories.” Instead of one tenant requiring 100,000 square feet, multiple companies can each take 10,000 and begin making hardware quickly. Companies like Beacon Manufacturing, Electric Outdoors, Knox Metals, robotics teams, and even emerging energy innovators in ammonia fuel and hydrogen power are already operating there.

What makes this possible is a combination of willing partners - especially the landlord willing to “say yes” - and a community committed to speeding up leasing, permitting, and onboarding. In one example, a tenant toured the building on Wednesday, signed a lease Thursday, and moved in on Friday. That speed,Chris argues, is essential for hardware companies that must iterate rapidly.

The video places this movement in historical context: during WWII, U.S. manufacturing capacity grew 5× in a short period, driven by urgency and shared purpose. Today, without the backdrop of war, America still needs rapid capacity growth, but greenfield construction is slow and expensive. Reactivating existing industrial buildings offers a faster, more scalable path - one that any city could replicate.

Chris ends by inviting us to reflect on industrial spaces in our own communities and imagine what could be built if these “hidden factories” were brought back to life.

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