Mass Timber Group Show: Sustainable Building Experts

Trending in Timber: Walmart HQ, Tallest Mass Timber Building + Warehouses

• Brady & Nic

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What’s the tallest mass timber building in the works, and how is mass timber shaping the future of real estate investing?

Here's what's trending in mass timber construction, from Walmart’s massive new headquarters to cutting-edge data centers and iconic skyscrapers like Milwaukee’s upcoming Edison Tower. Mass timber is unlocking sustainable solutions for everything from industrial warehouses to luxury apartments — and investment platforms, like Netural's, are democratizing real estate investment, making it accessible to more people than ever. Plus, catch exciting updates on North America’s mass timber codes and game-changing projects like Boulder’s largest affordable housing development and Ontario’s push for taller timber structures.

Looking for your mass timber community? Attend the 2025 Mass Timber Group Summit in Denver Co - Aug 20-22nd!

Speaker 1:

This is not a joke. This is not an over-exaggeration. I have never stayed at a cooler hotel. It's a world-class experience.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, let's get into it. There's some exciting projects that we're about to talk about. We see the Walmart headquarters is officially open for business. That's a huge project using mass timber. We're going to talk about what's soon to be the tallest mass timber building, the Edison. And we have another few projects that we definitely wanted to highlight, one being an industrial warehouse that uses all mass timber, one being an industrial warehouse that uses all mass timber. That's opening up all kinds of possibilities, specifically with data centers and AI and the huge demand that it's going to create in that building typology.

Speaker 2:

But before we get into it, nick and I just got back from Denver doing a sightseeing tour and testing out some of the venues that we're going to have for the conference, and we absolutely just had to give a shout out to the incredible team over at Populous. So this is where we're going to be holding the room block and, guys, it is down to every little detail. We were truly impressed and we can't wait for you guys to stay there to host our opening party, that or, excuse me, our closing party there. It it's so incredible, like Nick, nick, what stood out to you?

Speaker 1:

This is not a joke, this is not an over-exaggeration. I have never stayed at a cooler hotel that actually took your experience. And from every second to the way you open up the door until you get checked in to the rooms, to the venue, to the, to the dinner it was, it's a world-class experience. Studio gang, genie gang they're the designers of this. Urban Villages is the developer and the owner and it's just a very boutique operation and they go beyond anything that I've ever imagined. I mean they plant one tree per night per person of people that they're there. I know they've already planted, I think, over 70,000 trees to offset the carbon. And that's what's so interesting about this hotel Not only a studio gang, just a world-class superstar in the mass timber world of architecture.

Speaker 1:

You know she'll do like the new Harvard mass timber building at the university. She does. You know there was a Sunnyvale project, mass timber that she just got doing, got done out in California, and so it ties into the mass timber summit more than than we could have ever imagined it was. It was just a world-class experience and it will blow people away and it will sell out and and so we're go get your tickets, go save your spot go to mass timber dot group and we're going to be going live here at the beginning of February for people to get their own tickets.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and big shout out to Sam and Julie with the Populous team. They made our experience super enjoyable. So back to Mass Timber. Nick, you've got some exciting projects you wanted to talk about. What's on your docket?

Speaker 1:

I do so the biggest and the best in the world, walmart always comes up. They're one of the largest companies in the entire world and they just opened up a 50-acre home office. So what it is? It's the Walmart Home Office. It's officially open.

Speaker 1:

Located in the company's hometown of Bentonville, arkansas, spanning 350 acres, the home office brings their associates together on a modern, connected and sustainably focused campus that also supports their health and well-being. More than 2 million square feet of office space is built with mass timber, and each office building provides ample daylight, as well as indoor and outdoor flexible workspaces outfitted with the latest technology to create a seamless work anywhere experience. The razorback regional greenway runs throughout the campus, replete with bike and walking trails to encourage mobility. Other unique, unique amenities include child care center, fitness center, bespoke coffee shop nice known as the Treehouse I do need to cool that they have childcare center. That's huge, but the coffee shop known as the Treehouse and food hall, all designed to foster community and connection. So this is a post by Gensler and it's just a stunning project, and so shout out to Walmart.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, walmart's been like one of the biggest mass timber projects, like kind of under the radar but not really under the radar, but I'm excited to see everybody go public with it because it's just a huge, huge campus and it's all mass timber.

Speaker 2:

Like you said, the biggest and the best in the world are very, very aggressively looking at mass timber, and that'll kind of tie into the next thing that you're going to talk about, like the new Freres warehouse that they built using their MPP. The reason why this is important, guys, is I just read some articles as we were doing a research article specifically for this Freres building. What happens is they need to house ridiculous amounts of servers in industrial type buildings and they got to build them very quick. And all the companies that are focused on providing these data centers are also hyper-conscious of their sustainability and their footprint, and so the Amazon, google, microsofts of the world are going to be popping up tremendous amounts of these data center warehouses. They're looking for something quick, they're looking for something that's cost effective and something that's sustainable. Well, guess what? That's what mass timber is, and with Freres' warehouse right here the one that Nick's showing, like you guys, it's going to happen. This is a huge opportunity for mass timber if you can get it in front of the right people.

Speaker 1:

Microsoft already started that journey. When we're one of our past episodes we shot so showed that. So here's what it is. It's an MPP mass timber warehouse, meaning mass ply panel. So instead of cross-laminated timber where you have sawn timber like two by sixes or two by eights or two by four, laid down in a panel and then you cross, lay the next layer at a 90 degree angle, hence cross-laminated timber Well, this is the same concept, but you're sandwiching layers down in plies and much like OSB or plywood type of thing. Yeah, lvl, yep, exactly. And so this is just a new way of mass timber construction. Really excited to see the Freres you know brothers and company push forward. They're one of the top premier sponsors of the mass timber group summit. So you can come out, talk to Tyler Freres a little bit about. You know their, their direction, but they are. They are bulldozing ahead and pushing the industry forward. It's pretty cool forward.

Speaker 2:

It's pretty cool, yeah, and if anybody wants to find out more details specifically about that kind of like AI wave that I was talking about and how buildings just like Ferris's MPP warehouse kind of play into it, we actually just wrote an article about it. I'll post it down the link below in the in the links below, but you can also find it on our website. Okay, so we're going to pivot a little bit from huge corporations, industrial warehouse typologies and I kind of want to talk about the next big tallest building in America and that's going to be the Edison, again out in Milwaukee. I don't want to talk about this project specifically because it's going to be the tallest mass timber building, although that's certainly cool. When I was researching this project, I came across kind of like a little layer deeper behind the developer's intent and approach to real estate and real estate investing, and so the developer behind this is Neutral, or the Neutral Project. These guys and gals, they have a different approach to investing. So one of their key partners or key founders, nate he was quoted in an article saying something that really stuck out to me. So basically, the neutral project is working out our alternative financing for these types of projects while offering an opportunity for people to invest in real estate at a smaller price point. They're creating a platform that allows investors to fund specific projects based on their interest or geographic location and buy and sell to other investors in their secondary market.

Speaker 2:

Helbach says the funds would not be as liquid as stock, but would allow for more specific direction from investors and other crowdfunding platforms. This is a quote from name. Real estate is right now a very prestigious investment for only the very, very wealthy and institutional funds, and it shouldn't be, he says. It would be just another asset in someone's diversified portfolio. Our really big vision, with the neutral project and kind of our motto is democratized real estate, and so what he's talking about right there is.

Speaker 2:

If you want to go invest in these huge projects that get outsized returns bigger returns than you're ever going to get on like these tiny little hometown small investments Right now you have to be an accredited investor, which means you have a net worth of a million dollars outside of your personal home. You have to get that certified by your CPA and then you basically go through a qualification process and there's generally like a huge minimum investment size that you have to put in to get involved with one of these projects. So when you have to be a qualified investor and then you have to have a fat chunk of change to get in on these projects, what they're doing is something a little different. They're using an alternative funding source I won't go into the details or excuse me an alternative funding category that basically lets invest with like very small dollar amounts so these can be bought dollar amounts down to 10,000, 1,000, even 500 bucks to basically kind of quote unquote, crowdfund these types of projects. So what this means is you don't need a million bucks to go invest in mass timber. You can find developers that are doing projects like this and get in with them with like a very small dollar amount so you can invest in mass timber and get bigger returns than you could never have access to before. So anyway, I thought that was super exciting.

Speaker 2:

And then also in the neutral project portfolio for those who don't know, they did Baker's Place, also another mass timber project. And then in Madison, wisconsin, 206 units multifamily, and so they did this one. They're working on the Edison, and then in the plans is what's being dubbed as the Marcus Center, and this is going to be a 55 story mass timber tower. So you're going to have the Ascent. That's the current now. Edison's going to replace it and then very shortly thereafter fingers crossed this is going to replace that one. So 750 units mixed use, also by the neutral project. So there is incredible things coming down in the mass timber industry and, as a as a real estate investor and somebody who advocates other people, get into projects like this is a great way to expose yourself to mass timber and get outsized returns with, like smaller investments. So I had to plug Nate in the Neutral Project because I think what they're doing is really cool.

Speaker 1:

So that 55 story right there which is just staggering because the prior world record is the Ascent at 25 stories and it is debatable. There is a world record holder overseas and know overseas and whatnot, because the ascent is six stories on top of 19 stories of timber. You know it doesn't matter, but this is going to be 55 stories. There's not. This isn't a small, you know little skew. But what does the Edison look like? If that's, that's the 55 story?

Speaker 2:

The Edison is going to be 32 stories. Let me grab a picture of that really quick, and so this is what the Edison looks like. So it started out as a much shorter tower and then, through a bunch of different steps, it kind of grew into what you're looking at today and the last stats I saw. Depending on where you look, it's like 31, 32 stories but 378 luxury for rent apartments and it's going to be awesome. I think they said construction is underway.

Speaker 1:

Best of luck to the neutral project out there.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, what else you got?

Speaker 1:

All right. Well, we got a Boulder, colorado. We're breaking ground on what's called the Alpine Balsam, and this is the largest affordable housing project, nearly 10 years in the making. If we scroll down a little bit, talking about the city of Boulder, officials have been planning to transform a former hospital site located between Alpine Avenue and Balsam Avenue, hence the project name. Here's Boulder, if you can kind of see this, it's 45 minutes away from Denver, so not too far, but not right next door, and this is the rendering of what it's going to look like.

Speaker 1:

So another major part of the project is a flood mitigation, as much of the site sits in a 100-year floodplain. Initially, city officials considered using nearby North Boulder Park for flood detention, but community feedback led to a revised plan. The new design includes a continuous green space stretching from North Boulder Park for flood detention, but community feedback led to a revised plan. The new design includes a continuous green space stretching from North Boulder Park to Broadway. The channel will help manage flood risk and serve as a recreational amenity. No surprise here they are using mass timber, so it looks like it's a ZGF project which ZGF is making moves. They're they're really, really pushing into the mass timber industry Like not a lot of architects are. It's really exciting, actually, and they have the money and the power and the and the backing and the smarts and the people to do it. It's a large organization, but so a Denver based firm contracted by the city said the pavilion building expansion will use mass timber and local stone for a warm appearance and what's cool is they're going to do affordable housing. So we'll keep an eye, a close eye, on this project.

Speaker 1:

So how much will it cost? The city of Boulder purchased the 8.8 acre site in 2015 for about $40 million you know, chump change to some, I guess. The city of Boulder purchased the 8.8 acre site in 2015 for about 40 million you know jump change to some, I guess. So just about 40 million, like that's just a rounding error. An additional 16 million was spent to demolish the old Boulder Community Health Hospital through a sustainable deconstruction process process, which is interesting because I know Greg Kingsley, with KLNA Engineers and Builders in the Golden, colorado and Denver area, has a very specific like deconstruction set of ways where they demolish or they deconstruct a building and they reuse steel really whatever they can, and I know that they're doing that in the Boulder area like they went into a fire department, if I'm not mistaken, and so it's a really cool cool, yeah, and it looks like they're planning to do that for this project too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So we'll have to keep an eye with that. So we got that one there and next up on the docket really cool for Canada. So Element 5 is a mass timber producer. They're kind of up in the Niagara Falls. They're kind of on the border of New York Niagara Falls area. They also partnered with Haas Locker. So that was huge and they're unveiling their big expansion mass timber expansion to then produce more mass timber. But the point is the government needs and codes and buildings and the international building codes. They need to get on board and they did. So Ontario now allows mass timber buildings up to 18 stories as of January 1st and I'm looking at the date right now and we're in January 20th of 2025. So this is, in effect, ontario Building Codes was updated to allow mass timber buildings up to 18 stories. Previously, mass timber was allowed to six stories until 2022 and up to 12 stories from 2022 to 2024. So the government and the world is unfolding in the ways that this industry needs to see. So that's really cool.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it is, yes, it is.

Speaker 1:

And I can do the last but not least. Does that sound good on you?

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

From my end. All right. So I came across this article. This is interesting because what they're doing is like the title of it imagining a city of wood. Mass timber, huge beams of engineered lumber can revolutionize building. We commissioned four projects to show its range. So what this is doing is there's some companies out there actively trying to build these large scale projects, whether it be stadiums, whether it be, you know, buildings. But here's some renderings that I really thought was epic.

Speaker 1:

This is a real world project. It's already. You know this is Michael Green architecture MGA. It's a mass timber building for Google in Sunnyvale, california. You know, I think they opened up the doors. What last month? You know in January.

Speaker 1:

This is the PDX airport. Everybody knows about the Portland international airport. All of the fiber, all of the trees, everything was sourced within a 300 mile radius. I know Freres was a huge part of that, not to mention a lot of other lumber yards dimensional lumber, you know, and a lot of Native American reservation type of fiber as well, which is really cool, and I can't wait to go to the International Mass Timber Conference to fly into it, because I guess, if you look up, there's a story in the pattern and it's like, hey, that piece of lumber or that piece came from this forest and it's just a really, really cool story that they show. So I thought that was pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

This is also another project that's in New York called the Timber House and their apartment complex. I don't know how many units they are, but I remember looking at Zillow and having a heart attack because I can't afford this area. I think they were, I don't know. They were like three, four or five million. I might be putting my foot in my mouth, but they weren't cheap. So that was a really cool concept. So, coming down, scrolling down a little bit, we start to see this major league soccer stadium. So that's what you saw on Long Island. Like, if I scroll to the top, look at this rendering. Could you imagine?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1:

It's just a gorgeous situation and location Long Island City, skidmore, owings and Merrill architecture. Location Long Island City, skidmore, owings and Merrill Architecture Looks like SOMs, sees through dome, evokes some existing structures, notably Kengo, kuma's Japan National Stadium. But the wooden weave is unique. The execution here depends on the complex intertwining of software and logistics, the ability to calculate and obtain the precise curvature of each of you know that my public school reading is getting the best of me, so forgive me for fumbling through this. Each of over 1500 components pre-install the steel connections-build large chunks, then ship those to the site for final assembly.

Speaker 1:

The stands are hybrid of clt and concrete to dampen the tremors from tens of thousands of fans stomping in sync. That's interesting, that's. You know you never you don't think about that stuff, um. But the base is wrapped and roofed by a basket woven from bent wood slats and covered in a translucent synthetic fabric called ETFE. The result looks at once inevitable and new, the kind of design that prompts of what immediately followed by. Of course, I don't know if that made sense to people, but there's a lot going on. Harbor school here, red hook, hook. The architect is modest or modus there's so many.

Speaker 2:

There's just so many different ways you can use mass timbers. Like when you're envisioning the mass timber city, like back to the point of this article, it's not. It's not just a warehouse, it's not just housing, it's not just an office building, it's like literally anything can be used as mass timber. At this point, I mean, I know there was a lot of pushback, even from like healthcare, like lab use, like things about the vibration and the tremors and the cleanliness, like all that's been solved, like where people are actively working on solving those problems. So it's like the projects that you're showing right now are just examples of like anything can be made with timber.

Speaker 1:

Like. The projects that you're showing right now are just examples of like anything can be made with timber. Nowadays it can. It wasn't like that even five, six, seven years ago. There was a serious shift happening in the last one to two years. And so here's another project with ZGF called Amsterdam Avenue and West on 140th Street in Harlem. So another project out in New York. I love this. It looks like an actual tree holding this up.

Speaker 2:

And for those of you that are just listening, they got glue lambs connecting and then branching out like the branches of the tree to support an overhang of the building.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you got to head on over to the Mass Timber Group show on YouTube if you want to see the projects we're inlaying, all see the projects. It's we're in lane, all the project designs and it's beautiful. So we're keep scrolling down. We got the airline terminal in LaGuardia airport also out in New York looks like all mass timber. You know there's airports popping up left and right globally with mass timber, so that was kind of how I wrap. Wrapping it up is it's popping up in every, every major city near you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So again, guys, if you want to connect with people that are looking to get into mass timber just like you are architects, engineers, construction professionals, mass timber producers we're holding the summit in Denver and August 20th, 21st and 22nd we're, I think, in Denver on August 20th, 21st and 22nd. I think we're pretty much sold out of exhibitors at this point.

Speaker 1:

We've got like two left, nick. Yeah Well, we have the premier mass timber Titan, the top dog, the top spot. We have two 8x8 tables left, two 10x10 tables left. Those will all be sold out. We'll have exhibitors. It's three days. We do have a couple other sponsor opportunities for companies, but the biggest thing is coming there to educate yourself with the serious players that are doing it already. They're not talking about it, they have the projects and we bring those teams together so we can talk, network, maybe have a drink, maybe break some bread and hopefully, down the road we see more projects, more sustainable projects.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. Head on over to the website, get on the wait list if you're interested in speaking or attending, and we'll see you.

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Brady Potts

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Nic Wilson

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