diff --git a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
index e8684a88dc..ec2c8e32a3 100644
--- a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
+++ b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 #include "EntityTreeRenderer.h"
 #include "RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.h"
 
-EntityItem* RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem::factory(const EntityItemID& entityID, const EntityItemProperties& properties) {
+EntityItemPointer RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem::factory(const EntityItemID& entityID, const EntityItemProperties& properties) {
     return new RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem(entityID, properties);
 }
 
diff --git a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.h b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.h
index 981d59c506..b04b32996b 100644
--- a/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.h
+++ b/libraries/entities-renderer/src/RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem.h
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 
 class RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem : public PolyVoxEntityItem {
 public:
-    static EntityItem* factory(const EntityItemID& entityID, const EntityItemProperties& properties);
+    static EntityItemPointer factory(const EntityItemID& entityID, const EntityItemProperties& properties);
 
     RenderablePolyVoxEntityItem(const EntityItemID& entityItemID, const EntityItemProperties& properties) :
         PolyVoxEntityItem(entityItemID, properties) { }
diff --git a/libraries/entities/src/PolyVoxEntityItem.cpp b/libraries/entities/src/PolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
index 4b8be31fe0..a170d67241 100644
--- a/libraries/entities/src/PolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
+++ b/libraries/entities/src/PolyVoxEntityItem.cpp
@@ -26,8 +26,7 @@ const QByteArray PolyVoxEntityItem::DEFAULT_VOXEL_DATA(qCompress(QByteArray(0),
 const int PolyVoxEntityItem::DEFAULT_VOXEL_SURFACE_STYLE = 0;
 
 EntityItemPointer PolyVoxEntityItem::factory(const EntityItemID& entityID, const EntityItemProperties& properties) {
-    EntityItem* result = new PolyVoxEntityItem(entityID, properties);
-    return result;
+    return EntityItemPointer(new PolyVoxEntityItem(entityID, properties));
 }
 
 PolyVoxEntityItem::PolyVoxEntityItem(const EntityItemID& entityItemID, const EntityItemProperties& properties) :