Modular could lead commercial construction market

A trademark of Project FROG's energy efficient structures is an abundance of natural light.

YKK AP America manufactures various building envelope components for light commercial and residential structures. An agreement to provide aluminum windows to San Francisco-based Project FROG, a startup that designs and builds panelized modular buildings for the education, healthcare and government markets.

 

Using factory-made windows from one supplier increases their overall efficiency, says Ash Notaney, vice president of supply chain for Project FROG.

 

Non-residential construction declined 14 percent between July 2009 and July 2010, but is up 5 percent in 2010, according to Reed Construction Data. "We see is this as a good time to transition the focus of our company … to reposition to what is going to be the next innovation of the built environment," says Oliver Stepe, senior vice president of YKK AP. "There's no doubt that based on social and regulatory trends, the built environment has to become more sophisticated from a product  and envelope standpoint." The move to work with a modular building company is the first step toward this goal, he says. The company plans eventually to offer a suite of building-envelope products that work together as a system to increase overall building efficiency.

 

As a private company, YKK AP does not release revenues. It has about 800 employees and 1 million square feet of manufacturing facilities in North America, according to Stepe.

 

The modular space is well positioned when the commercial real estate market recovers, according to Notaney. It means building "faster and for less cost," he says. Time to completion from first contact with a customer can be as short as six months, according to Project FROG. Most of the 35,000 square feet of its completed projects are in the 5,000-to 10,000-square-foot range, though it is starting to design buildings larger than 10,000 square feet.