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 R&D center in Fridley as contractors push jobsite analytics and enterprise AI deployments
Mortenson has opened a new 40,000-square-foot research and development center in the Northern Stacks industrial park in Fridley, Minnesota. The facility, named BLUlabs, is designed and built in-house to support real-world testing, prototyping, product development and low-volume manufacturing for Mortenson project teams across the company.
What the new center offers
BLUlabs provides configurable bays and flexible workspace outfitted with 3D printers, CAD equipment and software, CNC machines, a plasma cutting table and a broad set of tools for carpentry, metal, concrete and electrical work. Dedicated engineering and fabrication staff will help Mortenson teams design prototypes, operate equipment and move concepts from idea to tested products.
Why Mortenson built BLUlabs
The center is positioned as an internal incubator to allow teams to experiment in a controlled setting before scaling solutions to projects. Mortenson intends BLUlabs to accelerate development of construction-focused tools, robotics and software, with a particular emphasis on making work safer and more efficient on large, remote job sites. The company’s solar business team is already working full-time out of the facility to develop custom tools for utility-scale solar construction.
Company background and continuity
Mortenson, based in Golden Valley, is one of the larger U.S. construction firms and provides building, development and engineering services across commercial, institutional and energy sectors. The firm has a long history of early technology adoption, including pioneering virtual design and construction work in the 1990s and later advances in electrical integration, precast concrete and AI tools. Mortenson describes its innovation team as a resource to empower project teams to develop and scale new products and businesses across its portfolio. Ideas from employees are evaluated and prototyped in real-world conditions prior to broader deployment.
Industry context — technology rollout continues
Construction technology is evolving rapidly as contractors and vendors release frequent updates. In July, a separate vendor introduced a new project dashboard aimed at steel erection teams, while another provider announced an enterprise AI platform agreement with a regional builder. These moves reflect a continued push by contractors to convert on-site data into operational clarity and predictive insight.
Versatile launches a dashboard for steel erection
In July, Versatile updated its crane-mounted sensor and jobsite analytics platform with a new Control Center dashboard geared to steel erection professionals. The tool consolidates crane activity, sequence progress and milestone tracking into a single view. Control Center aligns crane-mounted device data with project plans to give project managers, foremen and executives greater visibility into jobsite performance, and it now includes weather integration within Explore and Calendar views so teams can plan lifts based on temperature, wind and precipitation. The weather data updates as frequently as hourly from project sensors.
Buildots expands enterprise deployment with Juneau Construction
On August 27, Buildots announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Juneau Construction Co., under which Buildots’ AI-powered computer-vision platform will be deployed across Juneau’s portfolio of residential and student housing projects in the Southeast. The platform automates on-site progress tracking, surfaces current project status and provides predictive performance metrics. Juneau expects that rolling the platform out company-wide will improve organization-wide processes and bring immediate visibility into project performance; the company cites its Hub Knoxville student housing complex as an example of its large-scale project experience.
What this means for project teams
- Routine prototyping and testing: BLUlabs enables controlled trials of tools, processes and small-batch manufacturing before field rollout.
- Data-driven field operations: Platforms like Versatile and Buildots aim to reduce manual status gathering by converting site sensor imagery and crane telemetry into actionable dashboards and predictions.
- Cross-functional collaboration: BLUlabs will be open to Mortenson employees from across disciplines to support experimentation and accelerate technology transfer to jobsites.
Organizational notes and history
Mortenson’s innovation efforts are framed as an ongoing journey that includes early virtual design and construction work on landmark projects and continued industrialization in energy and data center work. The company intends BLUlabs to be another step in that trajectory by offering space, staff and equipment for hands-on development.
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Byline and source credit
Article compiled and summarized from reporting by Novid Parsi, Contributing Editor.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is BLUlabs and where is it located?
BLUlabs is a 40,000-square-foot research, development and low-volume manufacturing center located in the Northern Stacks industrial park in Fridley, Minnesota.
Who can use BLUlabs?
The facility is available to Mortenson project teams and employees across functions to support experimentation, prototyping and cross-functional collaboration.
What equipment does BLUlabs include?
BLUlabs is outfitted with 3D printers, CAD hardware and software, CNC machines, a plasma cutting table and tools for carpentry, metal, concrete and electrical work, supported by dedicated engineering and fabrication staff.
How does the new Versatile Control Center help steel erection projects?
Versatile’s Control Center consolidates crane activity, sequence progress and milestone tracking so project managers can see jobsite performance in a single dashboard. It also aligns crane telemetry with project plans and adds weather integration for lift planning.
What did Buildots announce recently?
Buildots signed a three-year enterprise agreement to deploy its AI and computer-vision platform across Juneau Construction Co.’s portfolio to automate on-site progress tracking and provide predictive performance metrics.
Key features at a glance
| Program / Product | Primary function | Key features | Intended users |
|---|---|---|---|
| BLUlabs (Mortenson) | R&D, prototyping, low-volume manufacturing | 40,000-sf configurable bays; 3D printers; CAD; CNC; plasma table; carpentry/metal/concrete/electrical tools; engineering & fabrication staff | Mortenson project teams, innovation staff, solar team |
| Control Center (Versatile) | Steel erection project dashboard | Consolidated crane activity, sequence progress, milestone tracking; weather integration; crane-mounted device alignment with plans | Steel erection PMs, foremen, project executives |
| Buildots platform | AI-powered on-site progress tracking | Computer vision; automated progress capture; latest project data; predictive performance metrics; enterprise deployment | General contractors, builders, project teams (example: Juneau Construction) |
Compiled and edited by reporting from Novid Parsi, Contributing Editor. Information summarized to provide an objective industry update on new facilities and product deployments.
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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