Built Different

Your modular project depends on one counterparty: the factory. If they fail, your project is in serious trouble.

Show Notes

What happens to your project if your modular factory fails? Your modular project depends entirely on one counterparty. If that factory fails—financially, operationally, or otherwise—your options are bad. Finding another factory to complete partially-built modules is nearly impossible. Starting over means writing off work in progress.

In this episode of Built Different, we examine counterparty risk concentration in modular construction. Katerra's 2021 collapse left developers scrambling. Other factories have failed more quietly. Size and institutional backing aren't protection against failure—but structural deal protections can reduce exposure.

Topics covered:

  • How modular concentrates counterparty risk vs. traditional construction
  • Lessons from Katerra and other high-profile modular factory failures
  • Limits of financial due diligence on factory health
  • Structural protections: payment terms, performance bonds, letters of credit
  • Contract terms for work-in-progress ownership if factory defaults

Who this episode is for: Developers structuring modular contracts, construction attorneys negotiating factory agreements, lenders assessing counterparty exposure, and investors conducting factory due diligence.

Key takeaway: The question isn't whether your factory could fail. It's whether you've structured the deal to survive if they do. Payment terms, bonds, and WIP ownership provisions reduce the severity of a factory failure.

Built Different is produced by Spring Street Management Group. New episodes on modular construction risk, off-site building contracts, and volumetric construction drop every weekday at 6 AM Pacific.

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What is Built Different?

Built Different is a daily podcast for developers, general contractors, and capital partners working in modular, volumetric, and off-site construction.

No hype. No futurism. Just execution reality.

Each episode breaks down what actually determines success or failure in factory-built projects: coordination gaps, design freeze timing, transportation risks, sequencing failures, financing mismatches, and the hidden costs no one models.

This isn't a show about the promise of modular. It's about what happens when modules hit the jobsite—and what you need to get right before they do.

Topics include:

Why modular projects fail (and it's not the factory)
Design freeze and its hidden costs
Transportation as construction risk
Site work that still controls the timeline
Where modular actually saves money—and where it doesn't
Sequencing, coordination, and the gaps between systems
3-4 minutes daily. Built for people who build.

Brought to you by Spring Street Management Group.