MASABA Inc., Vermillion, South Dakota, announced the grand opening of its new 147,500-square-foot state-of-the-art metal fabrication and office facility in Vermillion. The company celebrated this occasion with an open house event on Oct. 16, 2025, held at the newly named Harold Higman Fabrication Center. The official name of the facility was a surprise dedication to Masaba Founder and CEO Jerad Higman’s father, Harold Higman, Jr.
The open house included tours and live demonstrations of Masaba’s new metal fabrication equipment; a “make your own keychain” station, where attendees created branded keychains from metal cut and formed by Masaba’s equipment; a formal ceremony; and refreshments.
Following an opening prayer by Dave Moore of the Corporate Chaplains of America, the ceremony featured speeches from a number of government and area development officials. The new building, located adjacent to MASABA’s existing 211,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, includes 120,000 square feet of fabrication space and 27,500 square feet of office and ancillary areas. The expansion represents a major investment in advanced steel fabrication technology, with more than $15 million in new equipment installed to centralize and automate steel processing.
Just a year after breaking ground in April 2024, the new building was complete to the point that production was able to begin there in early May 2025. By September 2025, all plate and structural steel processing had fully transitioned into the space. The new manufacturing facility not only expands fabrication capacity for MASABA, but it also enables the company to repurpose its former steel processing area into additional welding and assembly bays, aligning with MASABA’S long-term growth strategy.