BRIDGEPORT – Mayor Joe Ganim and City Council members last week welcomed the military drone manufacturer Quantum Cyber N.V. to its newly acquired facility at 38 Union Ave. a day after it closed on the purchase of Arcade Technology (dba Arcade Metal Stamping) assets and its buildings for $320 million.
“It’s exciting,” Ganim said. “It represents everything positive that we want to do in the East End of Bridgeport. To the management of Quantum Cyber and those with the foresight to bring this business here, I want to say thank you. With your presence and the addition to and creation of a manufacturing jobs is what we want to continue to attract. It’s so much of our proud past.”
Alex Gurevich, a principal and financial backer of Quantum Cyber, plans on expanding the size of the work force by at least 50 employees as the factory transitions to a military drone manufacturing site from a tool and die maker.
“We are looking to revamp the factory and build on the 78-year-old factory,” Gurevich said. “We just closed on this property yesterday. Most of the drones are manufactured in foreign countries. We want to bring as much as we can to the U.S. This is the first drone factory in the U.S. We are a small part of a huge defense project.”
According to an SEC filing, Quantum Cyber N.V. reported that its subsidiary Quantum Drones Corp. has completed the acquisition of certain real property at 38 Union Ave. for $230 million and that the property underlies an approximately 50,000-square-foot industrial facility intended to serve as a U.S.-based manufacturing site. The acquisition completes the real-estate component of the broader Bridgeport transaction linked to a separate asset purchase agreement for installed manufacturing equipment. In that agreement Quantum Cyber purchased the manufacturing assets for $90 million.
City Councilman Alfredo Castillo, who represents Bridgeport’s 136th District, described how he lured Gurevich to the city.
“I want to thank Alex,” Castillo said. “I’ve been with him for 10 years. I’ve been trying to get him to come to Bridgeport. He called me on a Saturday early in the morning. He said, ‘Hey Fredo, I’m coming to Bridgeport. And I’m bringing a drone company. I said, OK, that’s excellent.’
“This city was always an industrial city. The engine seized and we are going to jumpstart it today because there are a lot of people like Alex that want to come here.”
Castillo described how Gurevich expects to bring many more high-paying jobs to the factory.
“These are $85,000-$100,000 jobs with (profit sharing) and benefit plans. This could be a jumpstart for our city.”
Quantum Cyber Drones describes its move to Bridgeport as a key step in its transition from technology development and licensing to vertically integrated autonomous defense manufacturing. The company is an autonomous defense technology company that assembles an AI-powered system-of-systems platform for drone warfare, counter-UAS, and border security applications.
The company also announced it has set up a headquarters at Suite 400, 200 Connecticut Ave. in Norwalk.
“Today marks far more than an opening of a new manufacturing facility,” said Rema Fountain, controller for Quantum Cyber. “It marks a new chapter in American innovation, national security and advanced technology. Quantum Drones is proud to be an American-made drone manufacturer for our military. This facility stands as a testament to American ingenuity, engineering excellence and our commitment to protecting those who protect our freedoms.”
The purchase of the Arcade tool and die maker will increase the workforce there to 85 employees right away. The drone company intends to add up to 80 workers as it ramps up domestic drone production at the 38 Union Avenue site. The company said it plans to build up to 100,000 drones per year.
Gurevich said while the company will build thousands of drones in Bridgeport, they will not be tested or flown there.
“We have a facility in Miami that does the testing,” he said. “There will be no testing in Bridgeport.”