Aaron Small

Building buildings that build buildings. Ushering in the end of construction. 20 days from foundation to keys. Co-founder @reframesystems, ex-Amazon Robotics.

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

Housing abundance in Massachusetts!

[Reframe Systems @ReframeSystems]

It was wonderful to host @MassLtGov Driscoll at our Devens, MA project comprising 12 single family homes. The first home was integrated in 6 hours on 10/22. We're honored to play our small part in unlocking housing abundance in MA and beyond with our robotic microfactories.
Thanks to our partners at @MassDev.

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

In 2014, for every dollar the US spent building new apartments, it spent 4 cents on data centers. Now it’s 73 cents.

Apartment spending peaked in mid-2023 and has been stuck around $116B for a year. Data centers are up 73% in twelve months.

A lot of the same electricians and crane crews build both, and they go where the money is.

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

I feel the same way about construction. The Empire State Building went up in 410 days in 1931. The average U.S. apartment building today takes about 575 days. It's maddening.

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

@BedrockRobotics @CapitalG @emergencecap Congrats. “Beautifully unremarkable” is the right goal. It’s what we want for homes too: the day nobody’s impressed that a house went from foundation to keys in 20 days.

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

@ReframeSystems

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

Set day at Adams Circle in Devens. 1 down, 11 to go.

Huge thanks to the crew who made yesterday look easy.

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

@MichelleVolz 1M homes each by 2040? What do you think? @buildwithcuby @americanhousing @ReframeSystems

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

@adcock_brett What part failed first?

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

Here’s the paper if you want to dig in: https://t.co/4nQt7vjC5H

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

Boston takes longer to approve a home than Raleigh takes to build one.

Data from a new paper by @esoltas that tracked housing permits across 60 cities. In Boston you wait about 1.3 years for a permit, then spend another 1.5 building. Raleigh, Phoenix and Austin do the whole thing in under a year.

The part that surprised me is that the cities slow to permit are also slow to build. Every extra year waiting on a permit comes with roughly another year of construction. Rents in those cities also tend to run about 39% higher for each extra year of permitting.

So fixing permitting matters a lot, but it’s only half of it. The other half is how we actually build, which is what we work on every day.

[Aaron Small @aaronasmall]

Abundance is alive in MA! Massachusetts lifted the 282-unit housing cap on the old Fort Devens Army base. In February @MassDev sold us two acres, and we’re building 12 factory-made homes there, three of them income-restricted. The first are ready for move in this year.

@RepAuchincloss, this is the economy that works like Legos 😁