Texas

By Matthew Auchincloss With prices of construction materials perpetually up across the board and labor shortages persisting, multifamily developers have long been searching for new ways to improve efficiency both in pre-planning and in actual construction. That’s unlikely to change any time soon. But the quest for elevated efficiency has recently taken a number of different forms, according to Nikolas Fowler, a multifamily project executive at Birmingham, Ala.-based general contractor Hoar Construction. “What you’re starting to see is more use of off-site construction, whether it’s traditional volumetric modular or panelized or bathroom pods or some of the other things that are out there today,” says Fowler. “As more and more people realize the advantages of those systems and we have more and more challenges with labor, you’re going to continue to see people looking for new innovative ways to make those projects pencil out.” Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Construction is historically not a very innovative industry. According to research from McKinsey, construction is the second-least digitally updated industry for the modern era; the first is agriculture and hunting.  “One didn’t change for thousands of years, the other didn’t …