Collaborating for more than 20 years on myriad impressive projects, Pennsylvania modular manufacturer MODLOGIQ and New York general contractor Axis Construction Corp. have employed modular construction in commercial, industrial, and educational areas—including a focus on the hospital and healthcare industries—with tremendous success.
Jim Gabriel, President and CEO of MODLOGIQ and DESIGNLOGIQ, and John Buongiorno, Vice President of Axis’s Modular Division, work together to promote the advantages of modular construction to the broader construction sector, providing clients with superior cost management and construction speed. In their recent collaborations in modular construction projects, MODLOGIQ and Axis show what can be achieved by embracing a more sustainable and efficient building solution while enhancing speed, shoring up safety, and minimizing construction-related hazards.
The team’s outstanding projects include the expansion of the emergency department for Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital–Plymouth of the Beth Israel Lahey Health system; additional healthcare services at the Lindner Campus for ACLD (Adults & Children with Learning & Developmental Disabilities); and the Wards Island Project, a three-story, 30,000-square-foot treatment center for women in New York City.
In addition to working together, both companies have continued to grow in their own ways. “In the last two years, we’ve doubled our growth in collective revenue numbers from DESIGNLOGIQ in Seville, Ohio, our kit of parts panel component manufacturing facility, and New Holland, Pennsylvania, our volumetric facility,” Gabriel explains.
Says Buongiorno, “As far as Axis goes, with the Massachusetts growth over the last couple of years, we put a big focus on the New England marketplace, and we’ve had some good success up there with the Plymouth project and the Massachusetts DOT project. We’re also in construction on another building, unfortunately not with Jim [Gabriel], for an animal shelter.”
The company also has plans for additional hiring and making a “big push” for success and growth in the New England area.
Additionally, both Buongiorno and Gabriel are heavily involved in different roles with MBI (Modular Building Institute). “I was added to the executive board this year, working side by side with John and other executive and board members, really just to support growth to the industry and make certain we’re in a position to support our industry in every way possible,” Gabriel says. “I have also taken on the role of the Modular Advocacy Program (MAP) chairperson, an initiative to support growth of the industry by providing advocacy at the state and federal levels concerning some of the threats we’ve seen to modular and off-site construction.”
This involves ensuring that legislators at the state and federal levels understand the value the companies bring to meeting the market’s challenges regarding affordable housing and work to address the labor issues everyone is experiencing.
“We feel the modular industry brings a lot of value relating to the efficient use of labor, providing alternative means of construction off-site,” says Gabriel.
While modular construction is generally not subject to some of the federal and state regulations regarding prevailing wages, this doesn’t mean companies in the field don’t pay living wages, and in most cases, they provide “very competitive rates” in this market, Gabriel adds. “You can’t be in construction and not be attracting and retaining talent with competitive rates,” he says. “So, the Modular Advocacy Program is a program that myself and John and others have championed to develop fundraising around not just advocacy, but education, providing much-needed funding for educational programs.”
And it’s not just educating the industry; it’s educating the market and young people about the value of a career in modular and off-site construction and encouraging them into the field.
As for Buongiorno, he’s currently Board President of MBI, a non-profit international trade association with members from around the world heavily concentrated in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America, with a strong presence in Europe.
“I’m really pushing for, and trying to take on, strengthening our position as an international organization and strengthening our position in Canada,” he says. “We have a good position in Canada, but we’re looking to strengthen that further through government affairs activities, workforce development, and helping our members in Europe.”
Recently, an MBI Business Development Director was appointed in Europe to grow the brand further, and while it’s been a slow process, MBI is aiming to accelerate that. The organization held its first World of Modular Europe Convention in Brussels the first week of October. The conference proved to be an “exciting” venture to help grow the brand and promote the industry and MBI. Buongiorno says, “WOM Europe ’24 far exceeded expectations and the genuine excitement of the attendees and eagerness to share ideas was felt throughout the event.”
“We’re recognized as the leader, but I want to strengthen that position and brand, and with what Jim’s doing with the MAP program and what some others doing, I’m really looking to accelerate that program,” says Buongiorno.
The test run will be a Modular 101 class that participants can take online to gain knowledge about the industry. This eight-hour course will strengthen their knowledge, and a certificate will be awarded once completed.
MBI also awards scholarships, not only to college students who apply but also to high school students to increase participation in a self-paced online learning course: Introduction to Commercial Modular Construction. Scholarships are also available for high school students to attend the biggest conference of the year, World of Modular.
“I’ve been diving in deep with MBI and shaking things up a bit to better the industry,” says Buongiorno. “I have to stop at some point, but I feel like I want to leave something behind. Axis Construction is a medium-sized contractor in New York, but for us to be leading an international organization like this when our main business is conventional construction is amazing! We’ve done a lot of great projects, and it means a lot. I want to try my best and leave something behind.”
As for labor, Gabriel believes they can change the perception of modular and off-site construction as being based not simply in a controlled environment, but in one heavily driven by leading-edge technology and innovation.
“I think managing growth has been a challenge,” he adds. “There’s no shortage of interest and demand for what we do and what it represents in terms of value, cost, certainty, schedule, lease, site, and impact—particularly when talking about a lot of the work John and his team do up in New England and New York: high-density urban areas and a hospital setting. There’s no laydown area, no additional space or additional parking. So, the value we bring is there’s no shortage of people looking to leverage that. The challenge is finding the best way to qualify those opportunities,” he says.
“That’s the difficult thing John and I and our team spend a lot of time on: qualifying opportunities and qualifying clients and qualifying geographies and sites and projects,” Gabriel says. “So, we’re looking for the right fit and making certain that we’re not just trying to build everything, because we know we can’t.”
Instead, the team looks to solve meaningful problems with the value they bring. “We want to make certain we have the ability to find the right clients and apply our value on a consistent basis.”
Ongoing challenges faced in the modular sector include gaps in the production cycle and schedule. “We’ve got fixed costs and overhead in our facility,” Gabriel says. “We’re different from most module manufacturers because our facility doesn’t require volume. Manufacturers are high-volume, low custom; we’re the exact opposite. We’re high-custom, low-volume. We still have a production line, we still have fixed costs that apply to projects, so if we can keep the production line full, our costs come down.”
Managing the growth properly and ensuring the right team is selected for each project is vital. “The talent level has to coincide with what we’re trying to accomplish for our clients,” Gabriel says, “but we’ve done a pretty good job of managing it.”
While both companies have years of experience in the industry and many projects to be proud of, it is their partnerships with each other that set them apart.
“We don’t partner with a lot of people,” says Buongiorno. “So, in our partnership with MODLOGIQ, it’s because of our friendship, and that we share the same values and ethics within the industry. We’ve become known as a team that will get projects completed no matter what. There certainly have been challenges on some projects, but we never, ever point the finger at each other and say, ‘It’s your problem.’ We work together to solve the problem for the client and then sort things out later.”
It’s never about Axis, and it’s never about MODLOGIQ, adds Buongiorno; it’s about meeting client needs and delivering their building so they can operate whatever project is being undertaken, whether emergency room, field office, or daycare center. “They’ve come to us to help them and we’re here for them,” says Buongiorno. “That’s what we’re here to do.”
The value of the partnership provides both companies with the ability to offer a great level of customer service, adds Gabriel. “We’re not bidding on work. John doesn’t come to us and say, give us a number on this building, and then go to five other companies and get numbers from them so that the customer gets the low bid,” he says. “That’s not what Axis or MODLOGIQ does. The value of our partnership is that clients come to us to solve problems, and we’ve been doing it for 20-plus years. We’re getting work as a result.”
While the partnership has to be competitive in the market, it’s the well-rounded value it brings that keeps this team on top.
“Taking the value of what we have in a relationship to the client is not a typical general contractor-vendor relationship,” says Gabriel. “We think there’s great value in that we can do it and develop an even greater partnership. We invite the designers, architects, consultants, the jurisdictional building departments, anyone who is involved in this project. We take a very collaborative approach to make certain our clients get exactly what they need out of modular construction.”
