Welcome to the FO.C. podcast, hosted by Kyle McLaughlin and sponsored by Northstar Technologies. The F.O.C. Podcast is the future of construction. And today I'm talking exactly about that, the future of construction. I'm going to give an A plus here because I'm excited. We're excited too. We're going to rock and roll. I have it's kind of a special episode happens to be episode number seven.

To be precise, this is again going to be a three part series because there's simply so much information to cover that we can't do it all in one podcast. Otherwise it'd be three hours. And I'm not a huge fan of three hour long episodes. I'm sure most people are not either. Another reason why this episode is important, and unique, is because I'm actually going to be going through a presentation that our marketing team has created, to explain a full overview of Northstar.

So really, if we had a name for the episode, it would be Northstar from A to Z or Northstar overview. Right. And I'm going to challenge my marketing team to come up with a really cool name because they're they are really, really smart and more clever than I am. But for now, we're calling it Northstar A to Z, right.

We're going to go over a little bit of an overview. We're going to talk about some features and benefits of the system. We're going to talk about the markets that we're in. And some previous performance that we've had in the past that's really unique and really cool. And really exclusive to both of our, both our product and the innovation that we've had.

And, and the design and the engineering and the manufacturing, the process that we have in place that allows us to be in some of these markets where other building systems can, so strap in. It's going to be an exciting episode. Welcome to episode number seven of the podcast. Let's get right into it. Let's kick things off.

And let me talk to you a little bit about kind of the overview of the company. Right. Who North star is, what we've done in the past. What's their core competencies? You know, what's the value proposition that we offer to our clients? Right. So Northstar Technology Group specializes in the design, the engineering, the manufacturing and the construction of advanced fiber reinforced composite building systems.

Okay, so what does that mean? Our core competencies are exactly the four pillars that I just mentioned. We design we have in-house architecture and then in-house design, in-house modeling. We have in-house engineering on the structural side. We have a manufacturing facility located here in Bonita Springs, Florida. And we're also a licensed general contractor in the state of Florida, right outside of the state of Florida.

We partner up with what we call our builder partners to perform both commercial and residential jobs so we can perform. If you're listening to this and you're in California and you're wondering how you can use Northstar here, not you can't. We have partners nationwide. Again, core competencies meaning structural engineering, 3D modeling, CNC programing for CNC machines, compositing, manufacturing, and of course, construction.

We have two subsidiaries. At the time of this recording, we have no Star Technologies Group, which is the parent company. And then we have North Star Building Systems, which is our manufacturing and construction division, also where JC licenses itself. And then we have North Star Realty Group, which is a full service real estate brokerage that I'm currently the broker.

So to talk a little bit about past performance, right. Because I know that's always important for you guys to get a context of, you know, you see us as this, new home builder currently. But in a previous life and in previous versions of the product. Right. This product has gone through a massive growing pattern, if you will, from generation one all the way to generation seven, which is what we use the most of our builds today.

And in our prototype generation eight, which will be used, in more of like a commercial high rise in curtain wall setting. But we have some really cool projects, thanks to our CEO, Paul Lacey, who has worked, in the industry for over 30 years now. And some really, really cool projects and opportunities that he's been involved in.

I'm just going to name a few just to highlight, the US Southern Command South Comm building, which is in, in the east side of, of Florida. We have the Miami Dade College, Kendall campus, and that was a curtain wall, which they're talking about. We have the Fort Harrison Hotel, which was, for the facades.

And that's up, I believe, in Tampa, the MacDill Air Force Base, which was our building closure. We have a luxury automotive condominium, which was here in Bonita Springs, Florida, along with a luxury indoor gun range, which some of you may know is the Alamo in Naples, Florida, right off Vanderbilt Beach Road. Reflections. Dermatology. Saint Johns Town Center, which was, architectural features and the dermatology.

Excuse me. Skip through that. That was that was the building. So, we did architectural features for Starbucks coffee, composite manufacturing for general growth properties. We have done bus manufacturing for Cinnabon. We have done composite manufacturing for Miller Brewing Company, who I'm sure many of you know, and we also did the Ralph Wilson Stadium. If you are a Buffalo Bills fan and you like to jump on tables and you probably know what the Ralph Wilson Stadium is, we did some comparative manufacturing there too.

A cool little background story that kind of leads into, the rest of my presentation. So next up is products, right? So we have a diverse product line and really they explain the products. They are industry driven. What does that mean? But because composite has such a wide range of uses, it's hard to just focus on one market.

Right. And I know that can be counterintuitive, because a lot of the times you want to master one before you move on to the next. But because we operate as a manufacturing, company, then it's easy for us to scale across markets because the product itself is, for the most part very similar. Right? You have either Excel shell, which is our baseball UX.

You have Excel frame, which is our framing system, or you have Excel structure, which is the full structure. Right. And that's not only exclusive to residential. There's, commercial markets that that's important and there's industrial markets that's important and there's mission critical, which is a big market that we're we're starting to get into right now, either through military use or for civilian private use as well, and also in the solar market through exo frame as solar canopies or, ground mounts or roof mounts that can be made out of composite materials.

So, I mean, right there there's five different markets that I just mentioned. So to recap, we have our residential market which is North Star Homes. Those are your sustainable homes that you're seeing that we're currently building locally in Southwest Florida and also throughout the states. We have commercial structures, which are a lot of what I just mentioned in the previous slide that I was talking about for Private Performance, and we have external curtain wall systems, which is our curtain walls.

And that's also what we're developing, generation eight around, we have the solar canopies, which I spoke of. That product line is called Solar glass. It's on our website, North Star. Com forward slash solar glass with one s. We have the heavily online, which is EV battery modular storage unit. So a little background on that.

A couple of years ago, portion of North America, came to us and asked if we could build a protective storage unit in which they could house not normal batteries, but they're they're decommissioned or dead EV batteries, so wouldn't have to be stored within their dealerships or within their service space, at their various locations. Right. And the reason why they didn't want that?

Because the batteries can be, as you've probably seen on YouTube or some social media videos, they can be highly flammable, right? So if you have it in a building that's have that's inhabited by other people, obviously that's not a good thing to have flammable materials there. So this acts as a modular standalone structure, which we actually designed and outfitted to have it look like a mini dealership.

Have you ever seen a Porsche dealership? They look, you know, they're always an architectural piece of work, right? They're always really, really cool looking. They're they're real sharp. They have that. They have their own design intent. Right. So we we modeled and we designed this thing to look like a mini version of those dealerships. Since the structures and the enclosures are fire rated, you know, 30 minutes and extended up to an hour, then they provide that safety that they're looking for in addition to all the benefits, like being impact rated and being lightweight and being modular, which is something that they needed as well.

Right. And the mission critical, which I talked about, which would be kind of the actually, I'm sitting in our one of our network operating centers right now, which is an example of a mission critical modular unit. Right. And we can use that for military use or like I said, for civilian use, for medical use. I mean, we can make mobile hospitals out of this.

You know, we can make data centers mobile data centers out of this. The possibilities are endless with our mission critical modular units. Next slide talks about sustainability. And that's key for us I want to say that is really where our mission statement came to mind, not only from a protect the earth standpoint, which is critical for us, but also from the standpoint of being mindful of smarter construction.

Right? Not as waste, maybe not as long or, you know, an extended period of time to consume resources, right? Using materials that don't leave a massive carbon footprint, which is something that we really talk about, and even recyclable materials. Right? The ability to use, building materials that have great potential to be recycled and repurposed due to their long term lifespan, combined with our ongoing efforts towards the land free construction sites, which is not something that you normally hero normally construction sites if you've ever been on one to have a construction dump dumpster, they have, you know, debris and waste everywhere.

It's not necessarily a clean, area until you get to SEO and you've had that place cleaned up, right. We've also developed some efficient methods of reusing residual material, which reduces carbon emissions and the production of new materials. Our advanced composites systems are virtually maintenance free. Right. So that's where the recyclable aspect really comes into play. From a carbon footprint standpoint, composites have a significantly reduce carbon emission during production, manufacturing and its lifespan.

When compared with traditional materials like steel, water, concrete, right properties such as corrosion resistance, mold resistance, resistance to chemical degradation, and superior energy efficiency ensures a comfortable and sustainable structure for generations to come. Right, and a fun fact here, research has confirmed that fiber reinforced polymer, experiences only about a 2% less than 2% variation over a 100 year lifespan.

And that's based on various tests that we've actually done here. Ourselves, when we went to get our Florida product for. All right. And then and just to continue on the sustainability piece, we have, some key sustainability standards that we follow, one of them being a pro, the Leed certification, we actually qualify for Leed platinum, which is a certification that's achievable through Leed.

They have a point scoring grading system going from silver, gold, platinum and then net zero, which is something that our homes are qualified for. We can be a complete carbon neutral, net zero home that is completely off grid and can be fully sustainable on its own. We're actually working on some projects that are just like that.

And I'll talk about those, later on this presentation. Another sustainability standard that we have is that everything is prebuilt to accommodate passive house standards. What does that mean? Because we're prefabricated and because we are, we're design intensive towards the passive house standards, then we can qualify for those parameters as well. And that represents tax credits and benefits to the end user as well.

Another fun fact here making protruded composite products requires little power and water throughout the entire process, which is what makes it sustainable. Right? Okay guys. Next up I wanted to talk about features. And this is important because this these features apply across the board. Right. And this is part of the reason why we're in so many markets is because the features are so beneficial for, not only commercial, residential, mission critical and solar, like I said, but first and foremost, for fire resistant, we have a classic 30 minute fire rating and what's available to be extended up to an hour.

We have a high strength to weight ratio. So pound for pound, we are stronger than steel. And we actually weigh about 75 to 80% less than steel. We consider ourselves and we are being tested to the standards of hurricane resistant, meaning that we're approved for the use, and exposure, the high velocity hurricane zones, and regions.

So what does that mean? Areas like Miami-Dade, areas like Collier County, areas, that are subject to hurricanes are classified as high velocity hurricanes zones. Right. And we are actually rated up to exposure D, which allows us to be classified as an emergency management shelter for, for any emergency management use. So if you if you've ever seen, if you've ever had the unfortunate experience of living through a hurricane, they've set up key evacuation and shelter areas for people to go to that didn't evacuate in the event that they need to go somewhere, or that their house has been damaged, or simply if they need a shelter.

Right. And these are normally schools. They're government buildings, something that's rated up to exposure. D well, our homes actually any of our walls are rated up to that standard. So any North Star structure that you have, whether it's a home or commercial building in the modular system that I'm sitting in right now, is actually classified to be used as an emergency management shelter.

So that's actually a huge benefit for us, and all these different industries. Right. Of course, were energy efficient and that plays in the sustainability aspect to, you know, our materials have zero heat transfer. That means that we're superior in thermal performance. Right. And and all thermal properties or insulation values are rated on. And our system code minimum is R 13, which is like your standard block wall with minimal insulation.

Our standard is actually R 26, which is double the code. Right. And we can go all the way up to R 42 as an upgrade. Our standard it is our 26 as an upgrade. You can go with our 42 if you want extreme energy efficiency. And then kind of so you can classify some of those Leed platinum and net zero ratings that I talked about earlier.

We are completely water resistant. So FRP is non-porous and it's impervious to past any water and obviously to win an impact. So what does that mean if one of our walls gets soaked or if it gets flooded, you don't have to dehumidifier the area. You don't have to rent a bunch of fans. You don't have to try to dry out our walls because they're completely impervious.

They don't suck in any water, right? Even our foundations, which we use fiber reinforced polymer for the rebar as the foundations absorb water through the concrete, that normal steel rebars or metal rebars, they start spalling, which means when they rust, they expand and it breaks the concrete up. And that's actually what happened in Miami Dade, where they had that that big high rise collapsed.

The rebar in the foundation was actually completely rusted, had expanded. It had compromised the foundation at a crack. That foundation and the concrete in that foundation, and eventually, over time and with construction going on around that building, the foundation failed and the whole building collapsed. So, I'm not going to sit here and say that. How do you use FRP rebar?

That wouldn't have happened, but it's highly likely that because the main failure point on that building was the rebar, if it would have been composite instead of steel, it wouldn't have rusted. It could have probably avoided a lot of damage. Right. The big one that we always get and we have a lot of fun with is we are ballistic rated, which is which is a lot of fun.

I always have, samples of our walls that I send to strategic partners, or we send them to our clients and they'll send us videos, or they'll actually ship them back with a bunch of, you know, bullets, not penetrated our wall and simply just mushroom on the surface of the wall, which is always really fun to see.

And I have some videos of that too, which I'll show you guys are pictures that maybe we can even put on this presentation today. So you can see what that looks like if you ever come for a factory tour. We do not give you the ability to shoot our walls, but we do have those walls that I'm talking about as displays, which is a lot of fun.

Anyways, we all you all level rated one for ballistic rating, so that's, that's 752. And that's just on our quarter inch ballistic panel, and we can go all the way up to you all level eight, which would withstand a 50 cal. That's like full Metal Jacket stuff, and that's more for military use. But if you want to use it for residential use, why not?

You know, it's up to you. Obviously there's there's a cost associated with that, but you would be just fine and dandy with our standard, which is that you all level one. That's not something that any other building system can currently provide in the marketplace. Because of the ballistic rating, we have an impact rating. Right? So we are impact rated up to 250 miles an hour.

Code is, anywhere between 175 and 180. So it's not even close right there. There is the potential, as you guys know, that live in Florida, for us to experience Cat five hurricanes, which is an access of 185 miles an hour. So for you to be extra protected as weather continues to deteriorate and these storms continue to get stronger, would be good for you to think ahead.

So, next time you're thinking about building a house, consider building with North Star. And be prepared for storms that could, have a wind rating or impact rating of over 200 miles an hour. We are mold and corrosion resistant and meaning that, any, any sort of degradation to, to materials such as I'm going to use even an organic like wood.

Termites love wood, right? Termites do not love FRP. They're not going to eat our composites. So if you have a stud that's made out of FRP, or if you have a truss that's made out of ten times out of ten, those termites are going to go for the wood studs and the wood trusses. They're not going to go for the FRP studs and the trusses.

Okay. Natural corrosion, whether it's from the test of time, whether it's saltwater hitting it, if you have a beachfront property, you know, whether you're exposed to an area that's extremely hot, you know, throughout, throughout the world, I mean, we have projects that we're looking at in the Middle East because the heat out there is so substantial that it it corrodes homes, right?

Because like saltwater rot, our homes, we projects that we're looking at in Belize, they have some of the highest salt content in the air. Right. So that that means that as those oceanfront properties or even properties that are off the ocean, that are not directly on the shoreline, are getting affected by this, that, you know, the facades and the exterior is actually being corroded in real time and also chemical degradation.

So any acids, you know, any sprays, anything that would affect, normal traditional building systems especially would, we would be completely unaffected by. Okay. And then to wrap up the first part of this three part series on our podcast episodes, I'm going to talk a little bit more about the benefits, as relevant as they are to our features, and positive building solutions provide numerous safety benefits, unmatched weather ability, and superior energy efficiency, which is what I was talking to you guys about earlier, right?

In conjunction with innovative systems and technologies result in our structures that continue to conserve time, money, energy, long after the project is completed. Right. And that's again, that's that's our core value. That's our mission is to create these highly sustainable building structures that are going to be more environmentally friendly, easier to build, and they're going to last longer.

Right? Again, lightweight materials reduce risk as well as reduce transportation, labor cost, indoor manufacturing, which is what we do here in Vinita, protects workers from the elements that improving efficiency, right? Especially in rainy areas, especially during the summer, especially in the areas that are subject to the weather, you know, manufacturing can continue no matter where you're at in the world, decrease total construction time and significantly reduce on site installation time.

What does that mean? Because our panels are prefabricated and they're flat bedded out to any jobsite. That's going to reduce the amount of time that it takes a structure to be installed, erected. Right. So as opposed to block where you're laying it one by one, since our walls are ready to go, literally get to the jobsite, you pop them up, tap them into the system.

We have a weatherproofing that we use on the connection to the wall. And then you're set and ready to go, and then you're bolting on the next wall, and then the next wall, and then the next wall, and then you're putting your next floor assembly on top of that. For those of us that are construction nerds, our floor assembly can be framed, or it can be concrete and poured.

Right? There's no there's no limitations to our load bearing walls. And of course, we are lightweight, durable and provide flexibility and versatility compared to other materials. Also, we are non-conductive and we have superior applications than metal. There's been a big push lately, especially with Barnard minimums, which is the market that we're in right now to make them out of metal.

And while that sounds effective and sounds cheap, it's exactly that cheap. You don't have a lot of energy efficiency with metal. You obviously are conducting electricity, and which is not a good idea in a state like Florida or really anywhere in the world. And you're exposing yourself to the dangers of the elements of nature, right? Wind, fire, water, all of that.

None of those threats that nature exposes you to, agree with metal. Right. But with that FRP, given all the benefits that I've already gone over, you don't have to worry about those things as much. Right? So next time you're thinking about building a metal structure, reconsider. And I want you to know that there's other options, that it can still be cost effective as well, such as FFP.

All right, guys, that wraps up part one of this three part series for, what I'm going to call the Northstar feature. Right. We talked a little bit about, our benefits. We talked about the features that we provide as a building system. We talked about the markets that we're in. And I gave you a little bit of an overview, but let's call this like the Northstar from A to Z.

I'm going to come up with a cool name, I promise. For now I'm just spitballing some different names. I'm probably going to call it. And that concludes part one. Stay tuned next week for part two and then the following week for part three. Thanks so much guys. Have a great day.