Constructing an Award-Winning Mixed-Use Firehouse Inside a National Reserve w/ Modular Genius [podcast transcript]

Welcome everyone. My name is John McMullen, and I'm the Marketing Director here at MBI. Today I'm talking with Damon Pross, President of Modular Genius. Damon is here today to talk about the challenges and successes in constructing a modular firehouse. Damon, thanks for coming in.

Damon Pross

Good morning, John. Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

John McMullen

I really appreciate your time. Let's dive right in. It's my understanding that Modular Genius is celebrating 15 years in business this coming May, is that right?

Damon Pross

That's true. Just coming up on 15 years in May. It’s just been exciting and fun.

John McMullen

Well, that's fantastic. Congratulations on that. You're, of course the President of Modular Genius and as one of the co-owners, founding co owners, I should say, tell me about how Modular Genius got started.

Damon Pross

We think it's a great story, myself and my two business partners, also founding co-owners, started in the industry almost 25 years ago each and started out as a small business, which is now probably if not the biggest modular supplier in the industry.

We worked there for years, learned a lot from the grassroots up and midway through work and I'd say 10 years into it, we started seeing different opportunities and niches for kind of this medium, middle of the road market. And hence, just started having conversations and created Modular Genius. We started off just doing some of the simple relocatable work and some simple projects just to get the company established to grow things and get cash under our belt. Then 15 years later have just grown this thing into a relocatable, permanent modular company that does turnkey solutions, design build and all sorts of contracts throughout the United States.

John McMullen

That's awesome. As you mentioned, you and your business partners have had a long career in the modular industry and even before Modular Genius got started. What can you tell me about yourself Damon, about Modular Genius, and maybe even a little bit about the industry as you've seen it grow over these years?

Damon Pross

It's been a fantastic ride. I guess really to start with myself. Again, I started about 25 years ago at a timeframe when I would say the industry was developed, but still growing; still kind of in its infancy stage. So, I was fortunate enough to kind of learn about everything throughout the industry, not just technical installation, construction, but just the whole business aspects. As I developed and grew, I was fortunate enough again, just to really be part of an industry that is now where it is today. A little bit about Modular Genius as I mentioned, when we started out, we felt that we saw this middle market that some companies are doing real small projects, some companies are doing some really large projects. We started doing some small and develop into the middle of the road projects I'll say and have since grown doing some of the big stuff turnkey.

Again, we're 15 years at it now with Modular Genius. We continue to grow, continue to increase our resources and technical support. So that really ties back into the industry. The greatest thing I think I'm very fortunate myself, Brad Gudeman, Dave Vanicky, they're all the co-owners, again, just with tons of experience, but we've seen just as an industry really develop and grow over the past 25 years. But I'd say even more so in the past 10 years. We’re doing some major offs with you know, we're calling in modular, but it's off-site construction. We're getting the site ready, while we're also getting the building ready.

Hence, we can offer speed, less disturbance on site, a lot of green building portions to it, less waste, and some really major initiatives that clients, existing clients and prospective clients for Modular Genius, as well as the industry are just really taken advantage of that. I think in a nutshell, it's just the industry itself. And just really develop and come up with some really excellent building solutions for all different types of building uses and types of clients and business sectors. It’s just been fantastic and exciting.

John McMullen

It has been. I know that the industry has just been booming. I was taking a look at Modular Genius’ website in preparation for this podcast and it seems as though you guys have done a little bit of everything with permanent and relocatable projects really in every sector. So, I was curious how has Modular Genius’ processes evolved over the past 15 years, as you've been working on all these types of projects?

Damon Pross

Again, the process we started out walking before we ran. And with that, I mean, we did some work in this industry. There's a lot of temporary classrooms and relocatable swing space and for government entities, and we started doing a lot of that work, which didn't take a lot of capital, cash and build up. Then we started doing some medium size works and turnkey services. Hence, we've evolved into a full turnkey firm. We always tell everybody we can do your project in whole or part, complete turnkey, our sweet spot.

We are a modular building contractor, but we also have GC license in over 35 states. So, the neat thing about Modular Genius and what we've done to develop and grow, it starts with our people. We have obviously the executive management group ownership, we mentioned about our experience and expertise, but more importantly, we just have a team that can support the design, project management and installation. Individuals here that are employees that have infrastructure, site work experience, as well as modular and the whole process throughout construction.

John McMullen

I want to turn my attention to the firehouse project I mentioned in the introduction, because it's a very cool project. It's a Pemberton Township, Modular Firehouse and Community Center, which, besides being a great project, is notable because it won first place at our Awards of Distinction in 2020.

I'm curious, what are some of the challenges you faced during that project?

Damon Pross

I'd say that the most interesting one out of the gate is that the project was located on a National Reserve. I actually didn't know anything about it. The mayor of Pemberton reached out to us and his business team, and they needed to replace an existing old, dilapidated fire station and replace it on a National Reserve. The Pinelands National Reserve is this 1.1-million-acre piece of land that in the 70s the government, it's I believe one of the first if not the first, National Reserve. It’s a community just made up of what they call the Pinelands Barons. It’s apparently 50-some communities there's like, developments but within there, there's farms, forest and protected species of animals and plants. So, as you can imagine, putting something there we had to be careful with the land, we had to be careful with the look of the building and the community and whatnot.

So, I'd say that was that was one of the most interesting and greatest challenges and then the other piece was working with them in an expeditious way to help them for lack of a better word. It wasn't a formal full design bill but help them design this from taking that demoing an old building and replacing it and giving it a new look and feel doing it through design procurement and contracts, which we ended up. They ended up using utilizing, which is a cooperative purchasing contract that we're a contractor on called the Keystone Purchasing Network. So, I'd say those two are probably the primary when it comes to getting the job going and making the job happen. Then you also have your construction sounds, but I think those were the most interesting.

John McMullen

Well, it sounds like there was definitely some delicate site work that had to had to go on there for that project. Tell me more about the conversations you had with the township itself when the project was being considered. What ultimately got them to decide on a modular structure?

Damon Pross

Again, we were replacing an existing building that sat there that was I don't know the exact age, but I believe it was before the 70s. I mean, it was inhabitable. So, it was a fun project, because we got up there and we came up just in I'd say in the pre planning stage and said, here we are, here's this building. Again, we got to meet which they have a comprehensive management plan in the Pinelands you have to find, you know, follow ecological environment stuff. So, we saw this building and we said we have to demo it. Then we have to replace it. That’s when the rubber hit the road, the wheels started turning. We had to think about environment, ecological, we had to think about obviously demo and health safety. Then the fun part for our team and their team and a whole collaboration, even with the Pinelands management plan that's in place that you have to follow was just creating this beautiful static building that's modular.

Again, this project has been on their radar for a long time, so they wanted speed and minimal disturbance, which modular offers. Again, they tied in that KPN contract, which is a procurement contract, and they were able to kind of put all the pieces together, I'd say, the whole group. Modular Genius, Pemberton, townships’ mayor and his team as well, as you know, the architects and engineers and everyone we pulled together.

John McMullen 

Nice. You’ve mentioned the KPN, the Keystone Purchasing Network, a couple of times. Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Damon Pross

Yeah, one thing we always like to make clear is, there's several purchasing co-ops throughout the nation. Our experience and understanding is this is one of the stronger ones and it's a purchasing program where this organization will go out, and it started a lot in the education market, but it's hence moved to local government and entities are though, but the long and short of it is they put together a program, and they go out and bid formally bid in multiple states under state contract procurement laws, and they bid products and services to create this co-op for better purchasing power bigger purchasing power. For example, Keystone Purchase Network has hundreds of schools throughout the United States buy an off of it, like literally even trash bags, so you can imagine that if they can say two three cents for trash bags throughout the year. It's just a huge advantage.

Plus, they eliminate the procurement process because they've already done it. So, the neat thing too is they supply like again, we're a contractor on there. We bid this formally for the modular boarding building piece classrooms and buildings, they have office buildings dorms, we formally bid it and we're awarded, but they do amazing stuff. They're like furniture, roofing supplies, even like athletic fields, trucks, pretty much name a product and a school would need or even a private entity or local government municipality. It's a lot of the stuff on there.

John McMullen

Definite advantages there for sure.

Damon Pross

Yeah, it's competitively bid in each state, and it just minimizes the procurement process. It gives better buying power. We went and bidded, they'll actually put down specific business use buildings; they have modules on there, they have specifications, they have the installation work, so you can purchase a building off of it, lease a building off of it. We can do the installation and that's what we did with timber. For this fire station, it actually started a relationship started where they were growing their Department of Public Works and Pemberton went and did the keys that they signed up. It's interesting to become a member, there's no fee, and there's no surcharges, because that's already been considered. So, they do volume discounts in the products and services. So, Pemberton township signed up as a member on this contract, and not only modular my understanding is use it for other products and services.

John McMullen 

Very cool. I'm going switch gears on you for a second. I was reading about this project, I think you mentioned this before, that the fire station was inspired by and built with the local National Reserve in mind, can you elaborate on that? What was what was done to help the building really fit into its environment?

Damon Pross

A lot of things. The neat thing about this project, to tell you about a firehouse, is this project the township wanted to have the fire station and community center to help revitalization and to bring the safety and health portion of the community together. So, it has public meeting rooms as well as the fire station, there's different sectors. So, the neat thing about the building is it's traditional, modular with an upgrade modular. We married the two types of modular together again to give them speed and minimum disturbance on site. But to answer your question, the part about the National Reserve is we had to work with the Pinelands. They have a management plan and come up with very nice statics to blend in with the community but more importantly, with the National Reserve.

So, if anyone that's listening wants to kind of see more about what we're talking, we have this on our website, and we also have it on our social media platform on YouTube. It'll show you the installation of it and then the final finish project. So, there's case studies, you can visit modulargenius.com you can visit YouTube. What you'll find is this building, it's amazing when you look at it because you'll see this happen. Half high brick finishes that kind of blends in to give you that forest outdoors look with a green hardy panel and a Standing Seam Metal Roof. When we got the colors, we were kind of like wow, this is kind of interesting, but when it came together, it was just beautiful. When you say it sits on the reserve, it sits in the community, and it just blends in. I would say, again, the collaboration just put together a really nice-looking building that ideally meets the use for the community, but then also just has a really, beautiful look to it.

John McMullen

It is a nice building for sure. I was wondering if you could tell me more about the factory-built portion of the project, how were you able to include the Apparatus Bay, those big open spaces for the fire trucks, and connect those with the firehouse and the community center?

Damon Pross

Well, any project that starts and you mentioned for those that are listening, when you do a firehouse, you have the Apparatus Bay, which is the fire equipment and where they supply everything that traditional roll up doors that you see on the fire department. That application itself is like a slab on grade and you just drive obviously just like any garage, you drive the truck into the garage, and then that's where we utilized modular building. That's one of our key suppliers with lean manufacturing has a patented system. It's a modular system that dates a hinged wall system that we use so we can get to higher heights to be able to you know 18–20-foot height so you can get a fire truck in there.

So, it's manufactured in the plant while we're getting the site ready. Again, it's a hinged system that we build in the factory the roof and the walls and when we get the site, we crane it we pull it up and the hinged walls pop out, we lag them to the foundation. Then, we just start doing the finishes and finish the site work. The other piece to it was what we'll call traditional modular, that's the occupied space for the fire department staff office, restrooms, meeting rooms type stuff, area for them to hang out while they're waiting for calls or working on things. Then they had a community center and that also had its own space with restrooms and a little kitchen for the community to utilize. That portion was also built in the plant, both were being manufactured at the same time, both sides Apparatus Bay, and the traditional modular occupancy side to at the same time, we were getting the site ready. When I say we're getting the site ready, we're doing the excavation, we're putting the foundation in place, and then we're bringing in the utilities. Hence, that's where we can do the project. That's where the modular industry, Modular Genius, anything offers the speed, we did this project for them. They'll test in about half the time that it would have taken it would have taken them a year and a half, two years to complete this project. And we did it from the design procurement contracting stage in less than a year. So, it turned out really nice.

John McMullen

In general, are there particular structural considerations when designing fire houses and really any other building that requires a lot of open interior space? How is that accomplished in a factory setting?

Damon Pross

The most important thing, I think, for the modular industry to express to people is it’s no different than quote unquote, traditional construction. So the way it's completed in the factory, or even just the overall project is exactly the same way it has to be designed, engineered, inspected, stamped and sealed, where you have a professional engineer stamp all the drawings architecturally mechanical, electrical plumbing, we do that in the manufacturing plant, majority of states, if not all have a formal process, that they have third party engineers and have a process that they put together that looks at the drawings and make sure they meet everything for the state. Structurally, mechanically, electrical, plumbing, ADA, everything. So that entire process is exactly same construction in general. Then, what we do, you mentioned about just having clear span or wide-open area, that's what you call clear span in any construction. It's literally the same materials and steel that you would use the span. It's structurally calculated, designed, and incorporated into the building.

So literally the same process, same inspection, same engineering reviews, code requirements, compliance, National Fire Protection, that's the beauty of Modular Genius. In this industry we do that as part of the process to get to the finish line. So, during the design planning stage, we figure all that out. We put it together, it's formally executed. And then on the back end, you know, when you're completed, you have everything in compliance.

John McMullen

I appreciate you going into some detail about that. know that can be sort of a misconception about modular construction, that everything needs to be a little module, a little room, little rooms connected together. But really, modular construction is more than capable of doing these big open spaces that really can be used for anything. So, I appreciate you going into that a little bit. Tell me more about some of the other notable projects Modular Genius has worked on last year and coming into this year.

Damon Pross

Well, you made me think right away when you said that about the misconception. We are one of the top multi story modular contractors in the nation. So, we have a neat project that was underway, three storeys that's modular without con. Its business use. It's one of our most notable ones, but I'm kind of trying to tell you in two parts that misconception. This is a multi-storey building, three storeys modular again, same design codes engineering, we're going to provide them finishing up speed, less disturbance on site, which is going to be a better return on investment quicker return on investment for them, and still give them that that business use office space look feel. We do permanent applications. These buildings have the same life expectancy of any building that's out there.

Some notables that we had; the neat thing with Pemberton is we're going to do a police station addition for them. We've just had just such a good relationship and success with the team and using that Keystone Purchasing Network contract. Anyone that’s interested in that if you visit our website at modulargenius.com and you scroll down to about us, purchasing cooperatives, and then KPN, you'll see all other contracts on there. You can gain more information about that, and it spells it out. I always tell everybody, again, we're contractor KPN can vet and tell everyone how to utilize it and what to use and how to sign up. And that links on there too. So, you can get a hold of their director. But we have information on there to help people understand. But it's really fun, because we're doing libraries. We like to express this is what Modular Genius is doing. But the industry, this modular industry and this kind of takes us back to the beginning of the growth and development and how the industry has evolved. We're doing multi story projects, we're doing single story projects, we're doing permanent relocatable projects, but they include the high schools temporary and permanent, education use, business use, libraries, government entities, churches, fire departments, police stations. So some of the, the projects, that are out there to name a few. We're doing Baltimore County Schools, Baltimore City Schools, Montgomery County schools, all schools throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, just different government entities and municipalities. It's just amazing. The amount of work that's out there, but this solution that modular offers, and this is what we've been doing in 2020 and what we see in 2021.

John McMullen

It's definitely been a fantastic time for the industry. I know a lot of people I've talked to are just as busy as they want to be. So, the industry is just taking off, which is great. Great for all of us. What's the rest of this year looking like for you guys at Modular Genius? Are you planned through the year into next year? How far ahead have you got projects?

Damon Pross

The year started out great. The first quarter is at or even over budgeted. Second quarter, we've been picking up the amount of jobs that we thought we'd have and we continue to see in our pipelines full through 2022. Again, those projects include some of the stuff that's on the on the radar, or there's several government renovation projects going on where we do relocatable space, we call it swing space. So, when they renovate, we'll put a building out 3000 10,000 20,000, or multiple buildings to house staff temporarily while government buildings are being renovated. Federal, local municipality, whatever. So, we'll do that we'll lease it for 12 months, five years, depending on how long the project is. So, there's a bunch of that work that's in front of us at Modular Genius and I would say industry wide. There's a ton of continued one of the biggest markets is education. And I would say primary education, colleges, universities. Everyone in that industry is always looking to change and move space, whether it's temporary permanent additions, they always like the opportunity of leasing, or if they get permanent, they like the idea of doing an addition and again, having the least disturbance, being able to do it quicker. A lot of the schools don't know their enrollment or things are changing and they need to get something done in six to nine months versus 12 to 18. So, they take advantage of the modular. So, we have a lot of that education work, a lot of healthcare work.

One of the notable projects we've done is a hospital addition. We do like emergency room additions, we do all different hospital additions. So, we have multiple health care, different types of labs. There's a lot of COVID work going on, whether it's social distancing, and organizations, whether they're business and education needing more space. But then there's also new initiatives with you know, research and development and health care that many of these organizations are taking advantage of modular. Again, I'll say it over and over again, speed, minimal disturbance, most hospitals you go to, how easy is it to find parking or define land? Right.  So, when you do a modular project, you can build it in the plant while you get the site ready. And you have you know; you don't have all the laid down material and you don't have all this stuff sitting taking up parking lot space or land for 6-12 months.

A lot of hospitals take advantage of that modular piece because of that, but it's been fun again, assembly used business education, just so many different sectors, so many different clients. It's just an amazing solution that I think, you know, if anybody listening wants to learn more, they can. Our website is really robust in the sense that it'll tell you about Modular Genius, but it will tell you about the industry. You can learn about the industry, the advantages of modular, off-site construction; you'll see case studies, you'll see just services, you can go and get a quote on our site, you can get a floor plan. So, anyone listening out there, if you're interested in modular or Modular Genius, visit our site. It'll take you to great opportunities just to learn how beneficial modular is and how it can help projects. Again, return on investment, speed, relocate ability, if you need it, if you need to lease something, if you want to purchase something, permanent building additions, it's anything that you need built can pretty much be done.

John McMullen

Well, I really appreciate your time today, Damon, and I know Modular Genius is busy as it can be. I appreciate your time and stopping by today and having this conversation.

Damon Pross

We want to thank MBI. Thank you so much. We were proud to be awarded this because we know how much time and effort in the committee they put together. We just want to thank MBI for all that they do as well putting this podcast together but more importantly, how much they do across the globe for modular for the industry. And I'll just the members, all the different contractors, it's just a great organization. So, thank you so much.

John McMullen

Well sure, on behalf of us here, you're very welcome. It's a pleasure for us and it's great to have members like Modular Genius. We appreciate it. My name is John McMullen, and this has been another episode of Inside Modular: The Podcast of Commercial Modular Construction. Until next time.