Community Projects: Crosby
Settled in 1904 as a commerce center to serve homesteaders from Scandinavia, the community of Crosby is now home to SEO Precision. A few years ago, with support from the community, Shawn and Esther Oehlke began their high-tech entrepreneurial business in Crosby.
SEO Precision designs and builds electro–optical fast steering mirror technology for government and commercial uses. SEO Precision, based in Crosby is reaching a global market – from an historic building.
“We were able to do this pretty economically,” said company president Shawn Oehlke. “That’s what we were looking for because we came at this from a very basic bootstrap program.”
The Oehlkes moved to Crosby and took over an empty mercantile building. The main floor is now a multi–use space, housing their business offices, a coffee shop, a gift shop, cubicle space for rent, and the Divide County Tech Center. The top floor includes 8 apartments and a guest room. In the basement are two lab spaces including is a clean room where SEO Precision manufactures their products. A portion of the space is set aside future expansion of the business.
The historic building that houses SEO Precision’s headquarters provides plenty of room for growth.