So what does Mentor have in common with New York City parking tickets and Calvin Klein?
The answer is Nova Manufacturing which offers precision machining, sheet metal fabrication, fiber laser, assembly, and engineering & design, services to a wide variety of industries.
One of their main product lines are parking boots produced for New York City. When a car owner has accumulated too many parking violations, a boot is affixed to their wheel that has contact and payment information on it. Once the ticket is paid, a release code is forwarded to the owner with instructions on how to return the boot to the city.
When asked how they got into the business, company President Dan Novak explained that they entered the bid process that didn’t have exact specifications. They put their ingenuity to use and came up with nine prototypes – one of which was chosen by the city.
This spirit of inventiveness got its start when Dan’s father was still in high school and started the company in his garage to build parts for NASA. That was over 40 years ago, and the family-owned business recently moved into their new 27,000 square foot facility in Mentor.
So why did they choose Mentor? Novak credits their continued growth and the need to consolidate their operations. Over the past decade they had purchased several buildings in a nearby community to meet the needs of their business. They set their eyes on Mentor to get everything under one roof and allow for future expansion. Their current property has an additional 3-acres.
They also chose Mentor because of the city’s strong manufacturing culture and cited the hands-on approach the city’s development team took during the site selection process.
“Everything was a good fit for us”, said Novak.
Their ability to find elegant solutions to functional problems is something that caught the eye of fashion legend Calvin Klein. Nova designed a custom window pully retraction system for Klein’s oceanfront home.
And that’s not all, they’ve even designed custom brake extensions for the renowned Skip Barber Racing School among other clients.
So what’s next? Novak says they have their eyes on robotics. They own another company in Florida’s “Space Coast” that makes circuit boards and solenoids will help take the next step in their company’s evolution.
We are certainly excited to see what the future holds and applaud the spirit of manufacturing innovation that Nova adds to Mentor’s manufacturing DNA. We wish them continued success and thank them for their investment in our community.
Nova Manufacturing is located at 7500 Clover Avenue in Mentor. Learn more at www.nova-manufacturing.com/.