Achieving Construction Cost Savings | Q&A with Andy Ball of oWOW
Using beamless mass timber and vertical integration to achieve double-digit construction cost savings
I can’t think of a real estate company with two partners more different than Andy Ball and Danny Haber at oWOW.
Ball is a construction industry veteran with a serious pedigree. He spent almost 20 years growing Webcor Builders from $20 million to $1.4 billion in revenue before joining Suffolk Construction as President of their West Region. He’s witnessed the construction industry’s evolution—or lack thereof—for the better part of 30 years.
Haber, on the other hand, is the visionary with a reputation for pushing boundaries. Before starting oWOW in 2017, Haber ran the Negev, a tech-oriented San Francisco communal living space.
But together, they’ve embarked on an ambitious attempt to build high-rise multifamily at lower cost by using beamless mass timber. While mass timber’s sustainability advantages are clear, its cost savings haven’t materialized for most developers. But Ball and Haber are proving otherwise—and have some early data validating that they may, in fact, have found the answer. They’ve used beamless mass timber to drive construction costs down; on their latest project—1510 Webster in Oakland—they achieved double-digit cost savings versus a more traditional approach.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Andy Ball, President of oWOW, several weeks ago to discuss his journey, oWOW’s approach, and the details of their construction model.