10 | BUILDING DESIGN+CONSTRUCTION | October 2019
| NEWS+TRENDS |
heavy hitters in the ConTech
and construction arenas:
Ardex, Autodesk, CEMEX,
Ferguson Ventures, FMI, Glo-
don, Haskell, Hilti, Obayashi,
Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, and
United Rentals. Brick & Mortar
refers to these investors as
its Preferred Industry Partners,
which help the VC fi rm identify
startups that might provide so-
lutions for the Partners’ needs.
Darren Bechtel, CEO of
Brick & Mortar Ventures,
is the brother of Brendan
Bechtel, Chairman and CEO
of Bechtel Group, one of the
world’s largest commercial
and industrial constructioncorporations, with $25.
billion in revenue last year.
Bechtel isn’t an investor in
Brick & Mortar Ventures, but
is considered a Preferred
Industry Partner by the fi rm.
Last year, Autodesk ac-
quired PlanGrid and Building-
Connected, two companies
for which Brick & Mortar had
provided early seed capital.
BuildingConnected was one of
16 deals that Brick & Mortar
Ventures transacted using
capital raised for its latest
fund. The other companies
into which Brick & Mortar
invested were ManufactOn,
FieldWire, Serious Labs,Branch Technology, Canvas,
Cumulus, Connect Homes,
Illumagear, SafeAl, Veerum,
Ynomia, Curbio, Wingtra, Tim-
ber, and SafeSite.
A spokesperson for Brick
& Mortar Ventures explained
the gap between the closing
of this fund and the announce-
ment about it as the fi rm’s
way of keeping that fund
“under the radar.”
Brick & Mortar Ventures,
which started in 2015, is
among a growing number of
investors that are showing
greater interest in construc-
tion technology.
BDCnetwork.com/BrickMortarSmart is in. Just ask city governments.
Offi cials are eagerly trying to connect infor-
mation and communication technologies
to help public services operate more ef-
fi ciently and cities become more business-
friendly. But smart cities don’t just happen.
They require a robust digital infrastructure.
That’s why the public sector is making ma-
jor investments in data centers.
As the nervous system of any smart city,
data centers are highly specialized. These
essential assets can be challenging to
estimate and demanding to construct. It isparamount that construction professionals
have reliable data for reference during the
design phase of a data center build.
RSMeans data from Gordian features more
than 100 building models, including modern
data centers. These localized models allow
architects, engineers, and other preconstruc-
tion professionals to quickly and accurately
create conceptual estimates for future builds.
The table below shows recent and future
costs per square foot of data centers across
the U.S. Visit rsmeans.com/bdandc for more
information about RSMeans data.GET SMART: SQUARE FOOT COSTS FOR DATA CENTERS
RSMeans By GordianALBUQUERQUE, N.M. $317.79 $318.95 $316.25 $315.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. $310.31 $311.24 $310.64 $310.
DALLAS $309.00 $309.28 $305.27 $304.
FORT WAYNE, IND. $325.17 $325.88 $322.74 $322.
LOS ANGELES $441.25 $442.45 $441.41 $441.
MILWAUKEE, WIS. $396.43 $397.22 $396.85 $396.
PHOENIX, ARIZ. $325.88 $326.73 $322.02 $322.
PORTLAND, MAINE $345.89 $346.41 $342.89 $343.
RENO, NEV. $349.05 $350.83 $348.16 $348.
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. $313.89 $314.42 $309.92 $309.CITY Q3, 2019 Q4, 2019Please note: Square foot models are used for planning and budgeting and are not meant for detailed estimates.Q1, 2020 Q2, 2020CIRCLE 755