Digital design-build company Prescient has received a $90 million financing commitment from Eldridge, a holding company with businesses across finance, technology, real estate and entertainment.
Prescient leverages off-site manufacturing to help developers and general contractors create multifamily and hospitality projects more quickly and with less expense, according to the firm.
The types of construction that are best suited for Prescient's business model are ideally large buildings with repeatable unit designs, chief marketing officer Rich Pond told Construction Dive. The company's involvement in projects begins at the conceptual stage, he added, "so we can influence or manage the design and engineering of the building prior to manufacturing and installation."
CEO Magued Eldaief told Construction Dive that the firm is different from other modular building companies because it is focused on the superstructure of a building.
“Our structures are engineered to 1/32s of an inch. So within everything that we would design, just like a car chassis, we know where everything — MEP and other fittings — is going to fit," he said. "We enabled that by doing the full design and coordinating all those activities for what needs to be bolted on that building.”
Instead of shipping full-volumetric pods on the site for stacking, he said, Prescient works with kits that can be more easily shipped and assembled on-site. Founded in 2012, the company has manufacturing and engineering facilities in Mebane, NC, Arvada, Colorado and a Global Technical Center in Poland.
50 projects completed
Since 2013, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company has completed 50 buildings and 8.3 million square feet of multifamily projects including condos, market-rate apartments, student housing, senior living, armed forces housing and corporate housing. It has firm project commitments to deliver almost 4 million square feet in 2021, according to a press statement.
Along with CBG Building Co., Prescient is about to complete the West Village at the University of California, Davis, a 1.3 million-square-foot student dormitory, which is the company's first project in a seismic zone. Earlier this year, Prescient received certification by the International Code Council Evaluation Service to provide its approach for buildings up to 12 stories in earthquake-prone areas.
Some other recent Prescient projects include:
- The Generation Atlanta 17-story mixed-use apartment building in Atlanta developed by Kaplan Residential and built by CBG Building Co.
- The Osprey 13-story mixed-use apartment building in Atlanta developed by Toll Brothers with general contractor Balfour Beatty.
- Denargo Market, Phase III, an eight-story, 325,000-square-foot apartment building in Denver from Cypress Real Estate Advisors and CFC Construction.
- The Grandscape Live 15-story, 380,000-square-foot apartment building in The Colony, Texas, near Dallas, built by VCC Construction.
