Fridley, Minnesota, August 30, 2025
News Summary
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 opens 40,000-sq-ft BLUlabs R&D center in Fridley; Versatile and Buildots roll out new jobsite analytics and enterprise deployments
By Novid Parsi, Contributing Editor — Your source for AEC industry trends, innovations, and best practices
Mortenson has opened a new research and development center called BLUlabs in Fridley, Minnesota, a 40,000-square-foot facility designed to speed prototyping, testing, and low-volume manufacturing for construction teams. The center sits in the Northern Stacks industrial park and is built and designed in-house by Mortenson to support controlled, real-world experiments and cross-functional collaboration across the firm.
What BLUlabs offers
BLUlabs provides configurable bays and workspace geared toward rapid iteration. The facility is equipped with 3D printers, CAD tools and software, CNC machines, and a plasma cutting table. It also includes a full array of trade-specific tools for carpentry, metal work, concrete, and electrical work. Dedicated engineering and fabrication staff are on site to help teams design prototypes and operate equipment.
The center is available to all Mortenson project teams and employees and is intended to act as an incubator for ideas that could reshape how buildings and infrastructure are delivered. The company’s innovation group will use the space to move concepts into physical tests, refine them, and deploy successful tools or processes at scale across the firm’s portfolio.
Why Mortenson is investing
Mortenson traces a history of early technology adoption and industrialization, including early virtual design and construction work dating to the 1990s and innovations in electrical integration and precast concrete. The company’s solar business team is already working full time inside BLUlabs to develop custom tools, robotics, and software aimed at improving safety and efficiency on utility-scale solar sites and other remote, large projects.
Senior leaders frame BLUlabs as a step in a longer strategy to empower project teams to develop and scale new products, technologies, and businesses. Ideas from employees will be evaluated and prototyped in the facility before broader deployment.
Industry context: why labs and data matter now
Construction technology is evolving quickly as contractors and vendors release new updates to hardware and software. BLUlabs represents a company-level commitment to accelerate adoption by creating a controlled environment where tools and processes can be tested against real-world conditions before being rolled out on jobsites.
Versatile updates crane-mounted sensor platform with new Control Center
In July, Versatile introduced Control Center, an updated dashboard for its crane-mounted sensor and jobsite analytics platform. The Control Center is positioned as a job-level dashboard tailored for steel erection teams, combining crane activity, sequence progress, and milestone tracking into a single view.
The update maps crane sensor feeds to project plans so project managers and foremen can see lift-by-lift status and milestone progress without chasing updates across spreadsheets, texts, and field reports. The platform also added weather integration to its Explore and Calendar views, letting teams plan lifts with hourly updates on temperature, wind, and precipitation pulled from project sensors.
Contractors who have used the tool report faster alignment between field crews and general contractors, fewer interruptions to schedule, and improved ability to adjust sequence when delays appear. Versatile’s leadership frames jobsite data as an underused asset and positions Control Center as a way to turn that data into more predictable performance.
Buildots inks three-year enterprise deal with Juneau Construction
Buildots announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Juneau Construction Co., under which Buildots’ AI-powered platform will be implemented across Juneau’s entire portfolio. Juneau, a builder of residential and student housing projects in the Southeast, will use the platform to automate on-site progress tracking through AI and computer vision and to surface predictive performance metrics.
Juneau has a history of large student housing projects, including an 800,000-square-foot, three-building complex in Knoxville used as an example of the company’s scale. Juneau’s innovation leadership indicates that the platform’s immediate visibility and predictive insights are expected to change internal workflows and improve organization-wide processes and client outcomes.
Broader takeaways
- On-site lab and manufacturing capability—BLUlabs shows how larger contractors are investing in physical R&D to prototype and industrialize construction techniques.
- Better jobsite dashboards—Versatile’s Control Center highlights demand for dashboards that reduce administrative friction in complex trades like steel erection.
- Enterprise AI adoption—Buildots’ deal with Juneau underlines the push to scale AI-driven progress tracking across portfolios, not just pilot projects.
Industry navigation and resource headings
Top Lists Top Design Firms | Midwest’s top Design Firms Stay Busy Despite Challenges | Top Contractors | Midwest Contractors Post Strong Growth in Revenue in 2023 | Top Specialty Contractors | Large Projects Spur Growth for Region’s Specialty Contractors | How to Participate ENR Videos More Videos
Frequently Asked Questions
What is BLUlabs and where is it located?
BLUlabs is Mortenson’s 40,000-square-foot research and development center located in the Northern Stacks industrial park in Fridley, Minnesota. It supports prototyping, testing, and low-volume manufacturing for construction teams.
Who can use BLUlabs?
The facility is available to Mortenson project teams and employees across functions to support experimentation, cross-functional collaboration, and product development.
What equipment does BLUlabs include?
BLUlabs is equipped with 3D printers, CAD software and stations, CNC machines, a plasma cutting table, and trade-specific tools for carpentry, metal, concrete, and electrical work. Dedicated engineering and fabrication staff provide technical support.
What is Versatile’s Control Center?
Control Center is a project dashboard added to Versatile’s crane-mounted sensor platform that consolidates crane activity, sequence progress, and milestones into one view. It also offers weather integration for lift planning and hourly environmental updates.
What does the Buildots–Juneau agreement cover?
Buildots and Juneau Construction Co. signed a three-year enterprise agreement to deploy Buildots’ AI and computer-vision platform across Juneau’s portfolio to automate progress tracking and provide predictive performance metrics.
How do these developments affect construction firms?
They point to faster adoption of in-house R&D, improved real-time jobsite visibility, and scaling of AI tools to improve planning, reduce rework, and increase predictability across projects.
Key features at a glance
| Topic | Primary Features | Intended Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| BLUlabs (Mortenson) | 40,000-sf lab, configurable bays, 3D printers, CAD, CNC, plasma cutter, trade tools, engineering staff | Faster prototyping, real-world testing, low-volume manufacturing, cross-team collaboration |
| Control Center (Versatile) | Crane activity + sequence + milestones dashboard, weather integration, hourly environmental updates | Consolidated visibility for steel erection PMs, reduced admin friction, better lift planning |
| Buildots – Juneau deal | Three-year enterprise deployment, AI computer vision, automated progress tracking, predictive metrics | Portfolio-wide visibility, predictive planning, process improvement across residential and student housing projects |
Contact: Mortenson, Versatile, and Buildots corporate communications and Juneau Construction are the sources of project information. This article compiles public announcements and company statements into a succinct industry update.
Deeper Dive: News & Info About This Topic
Additional Resources
- ENR: Tech Roundup — Mortenson opens BLUlabs center; Versatile debuts dashboard
- Wikipedia: Mortenson
- ENR: Mortenson BLUlabs image
- Google Search: Mortenson BLUlabs image
- BD+C: Mortenson opens research and development center
- Google Scholar: Mortenson research and development center
- Twin Cities Business: Mortenson opens advanced research facility in Fridley
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Mortenson
- Mortenson (official site)
- Google News: Mortenson BLUlabs
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