“This facility is instrumental in carrying out the corporate vision of building businesses and cultivating philanthropy and growing community,” founder, president and CEO Patrick Hood told Dayton Daily News following a Tuesday ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The new facility sits across from CRG Defense’s 123,000-square-foot office and manufacturing facility.
Hood founded the company as Cornerstone Research Group in 1997.
The company rebranded as CRG Defense in June. It said the rebrand reflects its evolution into “a fully integrated organization that combines R&D, product development, and manufacturing.”
CRG Defense, which employs more than 100 people, said it continues to develop a variety of products for the defense, aerospace and industrial sectors.
Alex Carlson, Miami Twp.’s community development director, said CRG’s formerly idle site initially generated several “unique proposals,” including high-rise apartments, townhome condos, storage facilities, chemical power washing and indoor paintball.
Carlson said CRG Defense was “well worth the wait.”
“It’s truly a pleasure to work with an organization that not only comes and builds incredible things for our military and national security, but builds a strong place to work for their employees, a sense of community,” he said.
Scott Koorndyk, president of the Entrepreneurs’ Center, said CRG Defense has made strong use of the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to support early-stage tech development, and “start with an end in mind.”
“CRG Defense is built on this premise that if you’re going to take advantage of these programs, you can do it for a purpose,“ he said.
He said the company has been Ohio’s top-performing SBIR research contract provider for decades and “certainly one of the top SBIR-performing companies in the country.”
CRG gives more help to local startups than any other group in the Dayton area through the state-run Entrepreneurial Services Provider Program, Koorndyk said. Because of this, Dayton ranks second in Ohio for startup resources — just behind Cleveland, he said.
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