Configurable fabrication bays and digital tools at the new BLUlabs research and development center in Fridley.
Fridley, Minnesota, August 30, 2025
Mortenson has opened BLUlabs, a 40,000-square-foot research and development center in the Northern Stacks industrial park in Fridley, Minnesota. The configurable facility houses fabrication bays, 3D printers, CAD workstations, CNC machines, a plasma table and trade-specific tools, with on-site engineering and fabrication staff to support prototyping and low-volume manufacturing. The center supports cross-functional teams—including Mortenson’s solar group—aiming to accelerate field-ready innovation. Separately, a crane-mounted sensor provider released a Control Center dashboard with weather-integrated analytics for steel erection, and Buildots announced a three-year enterprise deployment with Juneau Construction for AI-powered visual progress tracking.
Mortenson has opened a new research and development center near Minneapolis, unveiling a 40,000-square-foot facility designed to accelerate construction innovation. The new site, located in the Northern Stacks industrial park in Fridley, Minn., is intended as a configurable industrial workspace for testing, prototyping, and low-volume manufacturing available to all Mortenson project teams and employees.
The in-house designed and built facility includes configurable bays and shared workspaces to support practical, real-world trials of tools, machines, and processes. The facility is equipped with a range of fabrication and digital tools, including 3D printers, CAD workstations, CNC machines, a plasma cutting table, and dedicated tools for carpentry, metal, concrete, and electrical work. A team of engineering and fabrication staff is on site to help design prototypes, operate equipment, and support project teams as they refine ideas to the point of deployment.
Mortenson describes the center as an incubator that will let teams test tools, technologies, and processes in a controlled environment before scaling them to job sites. The facility is designed to support cross-functional collaboration by being open to employees from different disciplines and regions. The company also notes the center can support low-volume manufacturing, enabling projects that move from prototype to limited production without needing outside facilities.
The company has a history of early technology adoption dating back to pioneering virtual design and construction efforts in the 1990s. Prior innovations have included improvements in electrical integration, precast concrete, virtual design and construction, and early uses of AI tools. The firm’s solar business team is already working full time in the new center, developing custom tools, robotics, and software intended to improve safety and efficiency on remote, utility-scale solar projects.
Construction technology continues to evolve rapidly, with contractors and vendors regularly releasing updates to hardware and software. By putting a configurable lab close to its regional teams, Mortenson aims to reduce the gap between concept and field deployment, letting project members evaluate and refine solutions under conditions that mirror actual jobsite constraints.
In a separate move in July, a provider of crane-mounted sensors and jobsite analytics introduced a new project dashboard called Control Center, positioned as a tool for steel erection professionals. The dashboard pulls crane activity, sequence progress, and milestone tracking into a single view intended to give project managers clearer visibility into jobsite performance without needing to chase updates across spreadsheets, calls, or texts.
The platform aligns data captured by crane-mounted devices with project plans and schedules, and the provider added weather integration to its Explore and Calendar views so teams can factor temperature, wind, and precipitation into lift planning. Weather inputs can update from project sensors as often as hourly, giving crews and managers timely environmental context for sequencing and safety decisions.
On August 27, an AI-powered visual progress-tracking platform announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Juneau Construction Co. The deal will implement the platform across Juneau’s portfolio, which includes residential and student housing projects in the U.S. Southeast. The company plans to use data-driven insights and predictive performance metrics produced by the platform to improve organization-wide processes and project delivery. A recent project example cited by the builder is an 800,000-square-foot, three-building student housing complex at the University of Tennessee.
These developments illustrate two broader trends: construction firms investing in internal R&D and fabrication capacity, and more widespread adoption of data-driven jobsite monitoring. In-firm labs and cross-functional spaces shorten the feedback loop between field needs and product development, while analytics platforms aim to reduce manual reporting and provide earlier warnings about delays and risks.
Article prepared using industry reporting and product announcements. Author credit: Novid Parsi, Contributing Editor. Information summarized to provide a neutral, factual overview of recent developments in construction research, analytics, and enterprise software deployments.
BLUlabs is a 40,000-square-foot research and development center located in the Northern Stacks industrial park in Fridley, Minnesota. It is designed as a configurable industrial space for testing, prototyping, product development, and low-volume manufacturing.
The facility is available to all Mortenson project teams and employees, supporting cross-functional collaboration and real-world testing across trades and specialties.
The lab includes 3D printers, CAD equipment and software, CNC machines, a plasma cutting table, and tools for carpentry, metal, concrete, and electrical work. Dedicated engineering and fabrication staff provide design and prototyping support.
The Control Center consolidates crane activity, sequence progress, and milestone tracking into one dashboard targeted at steel erection teams. It is intended to reduce the need to chase updates across disparate communication channels and to give clearer jobsite visibility.
A three-year agreement will bring an AI- and computer-vision-based progress-tracking platform to a regional builder across its entire portfolio. The platform provides up-to-date site data and predictive performance metrics to help teams manage schedules and resources.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| BLUlabs size & location | 40,000-square-foot R&D center in Northern Stacks, Fridley, Minnesota |
| BLUlabs equipment | 3D printers, CAD software, CNC machines, plasma table, carpentry, metal, concrete, and electrical tools |
| BLUlabs staffing | Dedicated engineering and fabrication staff to support prototyping and equipment operation |
| Versatile Control Center | Dashboard consolidating crane activity, sequence progress, milestones; adds weather integration for lift planning |
| Buildots agreement | Three-year enterprise deployment with a Southeastern residential and student housing builder for AI-powered progress tracking |
| Industry impact | Shortens product development cycles, increases field-ready testing, and expands use of jobsite data for predictive decisions |
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