Adera works smarter, taking timber head to head with concrete.

The Challenge

Adera is a leader in sustainable wood frame construction and the developer of Crest in North Vancouver. Crest is one of the largest projects to be constructed using cross laminated timber (CLT), an engineered wood product lighter and more sustainable than concrete. The project design was complex, being built on a prime urban corner as an infill development adjacent to an operation telecommunications hub. In addition, the project needed to be built on time, through the pandemic. Adera needed a project management solution capable of tracking the project and sharing timely information with various stakeholders, especially its subcontractor partners.

The Solution

To manage Crest, Adera chose Procore, to professionally manage the complex build. Critically, trades were able to access the platform for free without the need for individual licenses, which helped drive adoption. Insight into the trades on-site and the status of tasks immediately improved. Scheduling different trades became easier with a single source of truth. The team also discovered benefits they weren’t expecting, such as how Procore could assist the sales and development teams.

A different approach

Crest is a six-storey, 179-unit residential project that supports the region with both housing and jobs. The lumber is sourced and manufactured into CLT in British Columbia. It’s also a demonstration of how to create housing quickly. Because CLT panels arrive at the job site prefabricated, timelines tend to be shorter than in concrete construction. This results in far less disruption to the communities in which Adera builds their projects. 

Bringing Crest to life required a new way of doing things. Procore has helped Adera keep track of the various elements of the project simply and efficiently, saving all the stakeholders time and ensuring everything runs smoothly. "We used to do our punch lists on Excel," says Adam Weir, vice president of construction, Adera. "We were all over the place. With Procore, everything is there, in one spot, accessible by everyone."

Adera committed to digitizing their site offices and part of this effort was mounting two 55-inch TVs in the site office for viewing drawings. With access to project documents accessible from so many devices––including phones, tablets and computers––printing costs plummeted. "If I were just to print every discipline and every drawing, that’s $5,000 right there, for one copy of the project," says Weir. Some items can be updated up to 30 times. On earlier projects, each revision would need to be printed. 

Senior superintendents started site meetings with Procore reviews. They discussed new drawings and the status of punch lists and safety measures––easily done with all the information in one location. Scheduling and RFIs immediately became easier to track and communicate.

From the job site to the sales team and beyond

As work on Crest progressed, Adera expanded its use of Procore beyond the construction team, a benefit it didn’t anticipate. 

The platform provided an easy way to push photos to the marketing team, which uses them to sell units. Unexpectedly, Procore started to play a role in the sales process. 

The benefits have gone further, beyond Adera’s team to its relationships with external stakeholders. The company uses the Procore dashboard to show government partners the high professional standard of its project management. This way, it supports the business’s development side with greater transparency and more data than would otherwise be available. 

Adera COO Rocky Sethi has found the platform helpful in maintaining a good relationship with the community. "‘Construction fatigue’ is a term that gets used often. People worry about construction in their neighbourhoods and what it means for them," he says. "With Procore, we know exactly how many drywallers, plumbers, framers or electricians we have on site at any given time. We track the trades and personnel we have on site on a daily basis, so if there are any issues, we can address them quickly. This makes for more efficient construction sites, and happier neighbourhoods in our communities." 

As Adera looks ahead to future projects, it’s planning to roll out Procore’s financial tools to its finance and accounting departments to further integrate the platform into the way the company works.

The last 50 years and the next 50 years

Adera is proud of its history of sustainable development. It’s committed to building homes and creating projects that will add to the fabric of the communities they become a part of. This long-term thinking informed its decision to choose Procore. 

"We wanted to make sure that if we were going to commit to something that there was some longevity to it, and more importantly, some support," says Weir. Veteran Adera employees also recognized that using a software management platform was good for the company and its future.

Sethi sees Crest––built with CLT and Procore––as part of its legacy. "Agility is one of our core values. It defines Adera’s work over the last 50 years, and it will be part of our legacy for the next 50 years." He says Adera’s partnership with Procore is a natural step for a company that thinks far ahead with every project it takes on. "We’re both on the leading edge of what we’re doing, and that’s why we’re working together."