Kurt Huntoon launched ProtoFab Inc. in 1996, working by himself in a garage.
Today, the company's three dozen employees work in 30,000 square feet at 685 E. Glendale, where the firm is establishing a second division.
The company, which began life as a millwright fabricating steel products for manufacturers in the region, now has added sales of steel products to small fabrication shops and consumers.
ProtoFab set the stage for the new division, Huntoon said last week, when it moved in late 2006 to the new quarters from an 18,000-square-foot location it previously occupied on Linda Way. Bryan Gardner of Reno Property Management represented ProtoFab in the deal.
The larger building allowed for inside storage of a broad inventory of steel items stainless steel, sheet steel and steel bars, for instance and ProtoFab got into business as a metals distribution service center.
The opportunity arose, Huntoon said, when a company that previously served the needs of small steel companies got out of the business in Reno.
