Sponsored Post – from Fourth&

This post is written by Scott Sproat, Marketing Manager at Capsa Ventures, the developer of a new sustainability-focused condo building that is currently under construction in East Austin. 

Have you ever gone to work for someone, or joined a group because you believe in their cause to build a better future? I’ve spent a lot of my career working for a paycheck, but I’ve recently taken that leap to work for a cause I really support.

Now when you find out where I work, you’ll likely be surprised… but let’s dive in.

I work for a commercial real estate developer in Austin. Most people (strictly my opinion) think that developers are these big bad corporations who plow over everything and build whatever they want. There is probably some truth to that, but there are many others that are charging forward to build some amazing things. Capsa Ventures is one of those companies.

Capsa Ventures seeks to build responsibly.  It’s a big statement, sure, but it’s also true. Capsa has a tiny resume, having only done three large projects. None of them were the tallest, most expensive, or attention-grabbing, but it helped us lay a great foundation for our latest (and largest) project – Fourth&.

We are telling everyone about it because it is simply changing the way Austin is built!

Fourth& is a mixed-use project in East Austin. What makes us different from other low-rise developments (typically 3-4 story buildings) is that they are typically built with all wood. That means a wood frame, wood wrap, wood trusses, wood joists, ALL wood. It’s scary. They build giant match boxes and people pay a lot of money to live in them.

But we decided to do things differently. We scraped the notion of wood and traded up to concrete and recycled steel. (That’s pre-insulated recycled steel.) This product is a game changer! It was actually one of the reasons I came to work for Capsa Ventures. By using pre-engineered, pre-insulated, pre-made steel (which costs a lot more than wood), we have virtually eliminated waste on site.

Why stop there though? We’ve also incorporated several other green features.

On top of steel, this project will also have solar panels for every resident, a variable speed A/C unit which actually switches gears to only give you the power you need to heat and cool your unit. The technology exists! Why aren’t more people adopting it? It’s crazy that a little planning can produce a product lightyears ahead of what the top builders keep doing.

Ugh…it’s frustrating that enormous profits aren’t invested in building something better (and faster).

It does give us an edge though.

We are small and will keep adding the latest technology into our projects that you can enjoy for years to come. That means you won’t get wood rot from a leaky pipe. You won’t get termites. And you’ll live in a building built from steel.

I challenge everyone who is looking, or thinking about purchasing a home, to ask questions about how it’s made. I honestly never thought I would tell people to ask what’s behind the walls, but now I do. And I will continue to do it until they start demanding that new homes actually be built with new technology, instead of technology from the early 1900s.

I like to tell people that it’s like using a rotary dial telephone when there are smartphones available. It’s a rotary dial phone with a lot of make-up on it. Remove the make-up. Ask questions! We deserve better buildings, have the ability to build better buildings, but need more home builders to take a responsible posture when building your future homes.

That’s it for me.  Feel free to email me at scotts@capsaventures.com if you’d like to hear more!