Autonomous aircraft manufacturer Pyka is expanding its operation in the East Bay.
Pyka has signed an eight-year lease for 110,000 square feet at Alameda Point that will serve as its corporate headquarters and production facility, the Oakland-based company planned to announce Tuesday
The company had been in talks to lease the land for some time, and had been negotiating with the city, who owns the building.
Chuma Ogunwole, Pyka’s chief operating officer, told the Business Times that the space will help the company scale up its production capacity. It had previously occupied 23,000 square feet at 1960 Mandela Parkway in Oakland for four years, and Ogunwole called the move a “big upgrade” for them.
The warehouse at Alameda Point, located at 950 West Tower Ave., was a former airplane hangar that will be used to design, develop and manufacture autonomous electric aircraft at scale, Ogunwole said.
“The building is absolutely perfect for what we're going do. It’s purpose-built for developing and testing and producing advanced aircraft systems and that's exactly what we do,” Ogunwole said. “It has the right infrastructure for that and has the really great high bay space for prototyping (and) production work.”
The seven-year old startup, which raised $37 million in Series A funding in 2022, joins a roster of tenants in the aerospace industry who have leased space at the former Naval Air Station over the past few years.
The city said earlier this year it would be putting several of the commercial buildings at Alameda Point up for sale this year to help raise capital that will fund construction and renovations at the site. There is an estimated $700 million worth of new infrastructure needed at the base, Abby Thorne-Lyman, director of Alameda's Base Reuse and Economic Development Department, said.
Alameda has worked with private developers who plan to build 1,500 homes on portions of the base over the next decade, including affordable senior housing and 800 new homes.
