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The profile for mass timber in Australia has been given a significant boost with the announcement that two key US developers will be speaking at the one-day Mass Timber//Connect event in Melbourne in February.
The event will showcase an international lineup of developers and associated industry professionals who are harnessing mass timber to drive the decarbonisation of the construction industry.
Developer Dan Whalen (Harbor Bay Ventures) has been confirmed as one of the key speakers.
Whalen is behind the $200-million Intro, Cleveland project [both pictured, top]. It is a 47,000sq m luxury apartment and retail development that utilised mass timber for its primary structure.
“Between using mass timber, having prime real estate at Cleveland’s best intersection and creating the most robust amenity package in the market, we were able to achieve a really great outcome.”
The fact that timber added strongly as a sustainability component was a great benefit, and it helped us decide to push forward with mass timber on other projects nationally,” Whalen said.
The project was completed in 2022 and is now the USA’s largest mass timber building.
“Intro broke both yield and leasing velocity records for the local market. The project demonstrated to us the opportunities mass timber can bring and now we have further developments in our pipeline set to be delivered as mass timber”.
Whalen will be joined by compatriot Noel Johnson who will also be a key speaker.
Johnson is one of the US’s most prolific mass timber developers with several projects completed in residential and commercial sectors. His experience with mass timber has resulted in him becoming one of mass timber’s biggest advocates in the US market.
“There are many ways to decarbonise our cities—however, mass timber may offer one of the only means to do so in a profitable way … to unleash the exponential power of free-market capitalism towards social objectives,” Johnson said.
Johnson will discuss his research on how mass timber has driven project profitability across the US, the behavioural finance that underpins such empirical findings, and the reasons for optimism with respect to urban decarbonisation.
Event organiser Robbie Svars said Johnson and Whalen operated in similar commercial environments to the market in Australia. “They also both provide the financial transparency when discussing their projects that audiences are craving. This makes them a not-to-be-missed duo for anyone interested in adopting mass timber.
“Across a variety of asset classes, we are seeing that the commerciality of mass timber is starting to stack up, from Purpose Built Student Accommodation to industrial warehouses. Dollar for dollar, any developer chasing green star ratings will get a better return by adopting mass timber than nearly any other sustainability initiative.
“To support this movement, it is crucial that we bring in perspectives from other markets that are on a similar trajectory to Australia.”
Mass Timber//Connect is being organised by V-SET, Vistek Engineer’s specialist mass timber arm.
The event is running an early-bird special throughout November that will offer a more than 30 per cent savings off the regular ticket price.
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