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Innovation and being open to alternatives have long been central to Kapitol Group director Andrew Deveson’s approach.
And in a time of upheaval and uncertainty in the property sector unlike any other, it seems that had never been more relevant.
Ahead of Urbanity, The Urban Developer’s three-day event to be held on the Gold Coast in August, Deveson, who founded Kapitol with David Caputo five years ago, outlined this approach and shared thoughts on what’s ahead.
Deveson is among the 50-plus speakers taking part in Urbanity.
Deveson’s career spans more than two decades with a background in civil engineering and the delivery of large and complex projects.
Before founding Kapitol Group, Deveson was regional director at Multiplex, where he led the delivery of more than $2-billion worth of award-winning projects in Victoria.
He said Caputo and he had established Kapitol with the aim of revolutionising the industry by “fostering a culture of innovation and embedding efficient design and construct methodologies into our projects”.
“Our vision encompassed not only the physical construction process but also the treatment of people within the industry, which had long suffered from a toxic culture,” Deveson said.
Currently, Kapitol Group is engaged in projects across several sectors including industrial, commercial, residential and education.
The company has a pipeline of about $700 million in projects, with a particular focus on the rapidly expanding data centre construction sector.
Deveson said the demand for data centres was on the rise, driven by such factors as video streaming, cloud storage and the rise of artificial intelligence. Kapitol has delivered 14 data centres to date.
Deveson said that developers were exploring alternative methods to achieve feasibility and get buildings out of the ground in the face of the ongoing construction crisis and economic slowdown.
“For example, Early Contractor Involvement is gaining traction, and there is a reduction in hard money tenders,” he said.
“As they aim to mitigate risk, more developers are looking for long-term relationships with construction partners with the strength and capability to deliver quality across multiple asset classes.
“The expanding build-to-rent market is a prime example, where lasting quality is an important criterion due to the ongoing ownership of these assets.”
The ongoing challenges of labour and supply constraints would not end anytime soon but there was cause for optimism, Deveson said.
“With the housing market slowing, due to approvals, it’s mainly the infrastructure projects that have the most demand for these skills but we do anticipate pressure easing.
“Prices are still going up but we’re getting better at factoring in what’s changing.
“That doesn’t help developers because prices continue to increase, but from a contractor’s point of view, they’re going up more predictably.”
Innovation was at the heart of Kapitol, Deveson said, and they are seeing a lot of it being driven by data centre clients.
“They’ve got a different perspective and expect continuous improvement,” he said.
“From their perspective, a computer gets twice as fast every year, and they bring this expectation to their construction partners, which is not ‘business as usual’ in the industry.
“Kapitol’s innovation focuses on professional development, information sharing, and documentation for performance solutions, which aligns with this continuous improvement approach.”
Digitisation was a huge component of this too, Deveson said, with Kapitol now collecting more tham 20,000 points of data from every project it delivered.
“This allows us to identify future efficiencies and points of improvement,” he said.
“Our company’s vision is to share and encourage all construction companies to adopt our innovations, ultimately improving the construction industry for a better life.”
This extends to AI and robotic, which Deveson said had “the potential to significantly boost productivity in the construction sector”.
Urbanity, Australia’s premier conference for the property industry, brought to you by The Urban Developer, will be held August on 29-31, 2023 on the Gold Coast
Highlights include:
Three days of inspired learning and connection
50-plus speakers across multiple stages
700-plus industry leaders
Interactive roundtables
Curated networking events
Immersive exhibits and site tours
Urbanity is a must-attend event for anyone involved in the development of cities and places.
