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Walbridge is a large privately held construction company based in Detroit that offers construction management, engineering, and real estate services. It serves manufacturing, hyperscale data centers, automotive, defense, higher education, health care, and government with a workforce of more than 1,500 professionals across North America. It plans, designs, builds, and manages facilities from concept to commissioning, coordinating project management, engineering, procurement, and construction for integrated delivery. Its private ownership and long history (founded in 1916) let it offer in-house capabilities across diverse sectors to deliver safe, on-time, on-budget facilities and to grow its North American market presence.
Company Size
501-1,000
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
Detroit, Michigan
Founded
1916
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Lyon Township data center project remains under review. Fifth plan submitted as township reviews ordinances. PUBLISHED: September 19, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT The Lyon Township Planning Commission again heard feedback this week from residents as its members continue reviewing a proposed data center project that had originally been approved a year ago. Walbridge, a Detroit-based construction and design company, and one of three developers involved in the Project Flex data center project proposed near Milford Road, south of Grand River Avenue, recently submitted their fifth plan to the township. Walbridge is collaborating on the project with Verrus, a California-based company that builds and operates data centers around the country, and Kimley-Horn, a North Carolina-based engineering and design company. The planning commission unanimously approved the project last September, but since then opposition by local residents has grown. The 172-acre property is already zoned industrial and the three companies were not seeking any variances or zoning changes, so the township board did not need to approve the plan for over 1.8 million square feet of building space. No public hearings were held by the board. But once word got out to local residents, the sentiment has been overwhelming - many are vehemently opposed to the project. "We're talking approximately 1.8 million square feet across six buildings on 172 acres, with a utility substation immediately adjacent to existing residential properties," said Erica Schatt, who lives adjacent to the property where the project is proposed to be built. "The scale of this project matters, because once this facility is built, the impacts are permanent. "I continue to be concerned about what that means for the residents who live immediately next door, not just during construction, but for decades afterward." Schatt also mentioned that the newest plan submitted to the township has added 18-foot walls along the south and east sides of the property. "That wall itself requires a variance," she said. "But there's no comparable 18-foot wall along the western boundary, where the residents are literally the closest to the project or even the north boundary, where there's a school." Township planner Brian Keesey gave an update on where the process stands. "The consultants are still reviewing the fifth submission of the site plan. It is not going on an agenda until we have comments that are back to the applicant," he said at the Monday meeting. "The plan may get revised before it comes back. It may come straight here. We don't know." The township is simultaneously reviewing possible changes to their ordinances and evaluating the project itself. New and amended language is being considered in several different sections of township ordinances including setbacks, energy and water use, special land use criteria and noise. "Details shall be provided to sufficiently describe sound-attenuating methods and vibration dampening systems used to mitigate impacts for chillers and other mechanical equipment associated with the use," the new section reads in part. "A complete acoustical analysis and impact assessment shall be completed, including complete modeling documentation and all modeling inputs and assumptions used in the noise modeling calculations." No one from the project developers spoke at the meeting. Keesey said the township has received several public comments about a waste management plan and added under the public facilities assessment a waste management plan describing handling methods for trash, recycling, batteries, e-waste, and other consumables specific to a proposed use. "I think we have to pay attention to the concerns that have been raised about the noise, electrical usage, water usage, environmental concerns, effects on property values, et cetera," said New Hudson resident Diane Link. "You've heard all this before, but I don't want you to forget that it's something that's really a concern." The process has gotten contentious over the summer. A letter submitted along with a third site plan earlier this year, warned that if approval is further delayed, Verrus will pursue legal action, including injunctions and damages under state and federal law. No legal action has yet been taken. But a new proposal has been offered to the township. Verrus representative Maria Poyer addressed the board and the public at a township meeting on July 6 with added incentives involving Project Flex. She said the township board was presented with the proposal in person on June 4 and a formal letter was submitted to board members on June 7. "The framework includes approximately $10 million in voluntary, township-administered community investments: a $5 million community infrastructure and resiliency fund, a $2 million public safety fund, and a $3 million education and workforce training fund, with priorities set by this board and its residents," Poyer said. "It also commits Verrus to local hiring, a community job fair, and ongoing township coordination, and enforceable neighborhood protections on noise, lighting, landscaping, water use, and environmental stewardship." The next board of trustees meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday Oct. 5 and the next planning commission meeting will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 13.
Line of sight at City Gateway Project. June 22, 2026 RALEIGH, NC June 22, 2026 - Local affiliates of NBC and CBS News held on site interviews with Christopher Alan, President and Founder of AUTOParkit, at the City Gateway Project owned by Capital City Urban Development, developed by Firstfloor, designed by SfL+a Architects, and under construction by Metcon Construction. Public interest was ignited in North Carolina's first fully automated parking garage after a news story was published a few weeks ago when the project broke ground. City Gateway Project in Downtown Raleigh AUTOParkit is a disruptive technology that's transforming the parking industry. Transportation is evolving and so is the way Auto Parkit, LLC park and interact with commercial parking structures. Additionally, the advent of electric vehicles, autonomous cars and ridesharing services poses new challenges for commercial development and the parking industry as a whole. AUTOParkit, with its sister companies AUTOChargit and PARKSentry, provide the technology and innovated solutions required by this evolving market and the public's demand for better and smarter developments.Christopher Alan, President and Founder of AUTOParkit Christopher Alan speaks to entire team during the City Gateway Tour R.J. Hunt, founder of Fast Town Motor Club, also visited the site looking to harness AUTOParkit as well as AUTODockit in a project targeted in South Florida that requires higher density parking and marina boat storage. Siemens, a strategic partner for AUTOParkit and AUTODockit, was also on hand for the tour. Rich Madeira, Director of the U.S. Account Management Office for Siemens, expressed, "It is eye opening to see firsthand the size and scope of an AUTOParkit System. A tour like this allows us to gain domain expertise that cannot be captured by reviewing a drawing or attending a Teams meeting." Dasher Lawless Fast Town Motor Club and Siemens Cocreation Dinner AUTOParkit, a market leader in fully automated parking garages, started in 2010 in Los Angeles and focuses on the commercial market for multi-family, office, mixed-use, and entertainment-based developments. The partnership allows Walbridge and AUTOParkit the ability to deploy a complete turnkey solution for the industrial market, initially servicing new vehicle inventory. Dasher Lawless Fast Town Motor Club and Siemens Cocreation Meeting Kickoff
Related Digital's $16B Saline Township data center is Walbridge's largest project ever. Walbridge, the Detroit-based construction and engineering firm, is serving as the general contractor for Related Digital's Saline Township data center development. It is the single largest project in the company's 110-year history, and the largest economic investment ever made in the state of Michigan. May 5, 2026 Walbridge, the Detroit-based construction and engineering firm, is serving as the general contractor for Related Digital's Saline Township data center development. It is the single largest project in the company's 110-year history, and the largest economic investment ever made in the state of Michigan. Developed by Related Digital exclusively for Oracle and OpenAI, the $16 billion, gigawatt-scale campus is being built under a first-in-the-nation project labor agreement covering more than 2,500 union tradespeople and apprentices. More than 200,000 union trade hours already have been logged on the 250-acre site with hundreds of Michigan tradespeople on the job every day. It is projected to open in 2029. "Building the infrastructure that will power the next generation of American AI - in our home state, with our union partners, on a campus of this scale - is exactly the work this company was built to do," says John Rakolta III, president of Walbridge. "(We have) been part of Michigan's industrial story for more than a century. We intend to help write the next one." The partnership between Related Digital and Walbridge began at the earliest stages of the project, with the collaboration being central to the design of the project labor agreement, executed under the National Maintenance Agreement and governing all 14-signatory affiliated skilled trade unions. The Saline Township facility is said to be the first data center in the country to be built under the memorandum of understanding between OpenAI and North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU). "Walbridge's understanding of what it takes to deliver a project of this scale and clear commitment to building to the highest standards of safety and craftsmanship made them the right partner from day one," says Bruce A. Beal Jr., president of Related Cos. "Their deep relationships with the Michigan building trades, developed over a century of working together, led the way for this historic labor agreement. "Together we are delivering a model of responsible AI infrastructure development in America, one that is strengthening Michigan workers and manufacturing across our country." Mike Haller, CEO of Walbridge, says, "A project of this scale demands more than technical capability - it demands trust, partnership, and a shared commitment to the community where we are building. "We are proud to help shape an agreement that creates good union jobs in Washtenaw County, expands apprenticeship pathways across Michigan, and sets a national standard for how this new generation of critical infrastructure should be built." Over its history, Walbridge has built manufacturing plants, automotive facilities, hospitals, and universities. The Stargate Michigan campus represents a new chapter: one of the most technically complex construction projects in the country. Walbridge also is establishing a modular Safety and Quality Center on the Saline Township campus to support electrical apprentice training and expand the pipeline of skilled tradespeople needed to build out AI infrastructure across the region. The economic footprint of Stargate Michigan extends well beyond the construction site, according to Walbridge. Across the United States, the project represents more than $5 billion in direct and indirect labor investment, drawing on contractors, tradespeople, and manufacturers from 14 states. Michigan companies are among those delivering some of the most technically demanding work on the campus. Kais-Air in Holly (part of Kaiser Enterprise in Troy) is responsible for both the mechanical and electrical skid assemblies (SKID) and the hot aisle containment systems (HAC). The 250-acre campus, known as "The Barn" for the historic red barn preserved at its Michigan Avenue entrance, includes: * Three 550,000-square-foot single-story data halls, totaling more than 1.65 million square feet of LEED-certified data center space. * Closed-loop cooling systems limiting daily water use to levels comparable to a standard office building, protecting Michigan's water resources and the Great Lakes. * 100 percent of power supplied by DTE Energy from existing resources, augmented by a new project-financed battery storage investment, with infrastructure costs borne entirely by the project and creating a $300 million annual affordability benefit for customers. * More than 2,500 union construction jobs during the build and an estimated 450 permanent on-site jobs. * Hundreds of acres preserved as farmland, wetlands, and open space. * $14 million in direct investment in local fire services and new community and farmland preservation funds. Other local trade partners on the project include: * Motor City Electric in Detroit * Progressive Mechanical Inc. in Clawson * John E. Green in Highland Park * Shaw / E-J Electric in Southfield * Superior Electric Great Lakes in Auburn Hills * Triangle Electric in Madison Heights * Universal Piping Industries in Troy
Woodchuck Partners with Walbridge to help advance customers' construction sustainability goals. Provided by PR Newswire Mar 24, 2026, 5:15:00 AM Woodchuck Partners with Walbridge to help advance customers' construction sustainability goals PR Newswire GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 24, 2026. Early results show major gains in tracking waste, reducing disposal, cutting costs and improving efficiency at Ford construction project in Marshall, Michigan GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Woodchuck, the AI-powered climate-tech startup redefining how construction and manufacturing industries handle wood waste, today announced a joint sustainability initiative with Walbridge, one of the nation's top industrial and automotive constructors. The program supports Ford Motor Company's construction waste-reduction efforts at its new manufacturing facility in Marshall, Mich. In the first three months, the program has given teams a clearer view of the materials being discarded, diversion rates, cost reductions, and operational efficiency - already achieving 40% of the project's projected materials-related savings. This early progress offers Walbridge a powerful solution to address customers' waste management needs and lays the groundwork for a new standard operating procedure for future large-scale construction projects. A Legacy Builder Confronts a Modern Waste Challenge For more than a century, Walbridge has delivered some of the most complex automotive and industrial projects in North America. As Walbridge's customers expand their sustainability commitments, construction waste management is a growing priority - particularly on megaprojects where the volume and variability of materials can shift daily. On the Ford project, wood waste quickly emerged as one of the most unpredictable waste elements. Crating, dunnage, international shipping pallets, and custom rigging arrived in wide-ranging sizes and material types, creating a diverse and constantly changing waste stream. These complexities revealed opportunities for innovation. Walbridge saw the potential to elevate efficiency, reduce hauling expenses, and strengthen alignment with Ford's sustainability goals. The need for real-time visibility into container levels and the makeup of each load became a catalyst for adopting a smarter, data-driven solution - one that made waste handling more predictable, cost-effective and sustainable. "Our partnership with Woodchuck is built on collaboration. Transparent and real-time communication allows our team to adapt quickly to changing material waste streams on the ground. Detailed information about each load provides complete visibility not only into what is diverted from a landfill, but also into its end destination and intended use, delivering transparency and enabling measurable sustainability outcomes," said Sander Mathijs, Walbridge Sustainability Manager. "Another key program feature is its ability to scale, allowing us to calibrate capacity and scope to meet the waste-diversion needs of the project." Woodchuck's AI Platform Delivers Immediate, Scalable Impact Woodchuck.ai leverages its AI platform across the Ford project to track, report and validate the diversion of wood, cardboard, plastic, and metal; all with minimal onsite labor and seamless integration into Walbridge's existing workflows. Walbridge saw meaningful improvements within the first quarter diverting thousands of tons of wood, cardboard, plastic and metal; reducing waste, reducing landfill dependency, and reducing costs. Over the course of the project, Woodchuck will divert 8,000 tons of wood and 1,000 tons of cardboard, plastic, and metal from landfills. Woodchuck's detailed reporting also strengthens accountability, giving Walbridge clear data documenting recycling and reuse for both internal tracking and customer sustainability documentation. Because the Woodchuck platform is designed for large, multi-phase construction programs, the improvements seen at the Marshall project can be replicated at scale. Whether deployed on a single megaproject or rolled out across multiple sites, contractors gain the same visibility, control, and cost efficiencies, making the solution a powerful model for nationwide waste management and sustainability performance. "Our partnership with Woodchuck has been a game-changer," said Ross Linton, Group Vice President, Walbridge. "In just a few short months, they've helped us transform our waste process to one that's measurable, trackable, and easily managed. Our team is empowered to plan ahead, driving efficiency and sustainability. We're excited about the future possibilities this collaboration brings." Creating a New Standard for Future Walbridge Projects Based on early results, Walbridge expects the Woodchuck-enabled process to become a foundation for future large-scale builds across automotive, manufacturing, technology, and advanced industrial sectors. "Walbridge is demonstrating what it looks like when a contractor treats waste as a strategic input rather than an afterthought," said Todd Thomas, CEO of Woodchuck. "By embracing real-time data, AI-enabled insights, and a commitment to measurable sustainability outcomes, they're proving that smarter waste management isn't just good for the environment - it's good for productivity, cost efficiency, and project certainty. Their leadership on Ford's Marshall project shows what's possible when innovation becomes part of the construction workflow, and they're setting the pace for how the industry will operate going forward." About Woodchuck Woodchuck is a climate impact start-up dedicated to empowering contractors, manufacturers, and biomass energy producers by streamlining wood waste diversion and processing. We are committed to leveraging advanced AI technologies to transform waste into valuable resources, reduce landfill usage, and provide a steady, sustainable supply of biomass. Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Woodchuck is funded by an investor syndicate led by Mason Fink, Beckett Industries, NorthStar Clean Energy and Alloy Partners. For more information, visit https://woodchuck.ai/. About Walbridge Walbridge is one of America's largest privately held construction companies founded in Detroit in 1916. The company offers construction management, engineering, and real estate services for customers in manufacturing, hyperscale data centers, automotive, defense, higher education, health care, and government. Walbridge employs more than 1,500 professionals in North America. Visit www.walbridge.com or connect with us on LinkedIn to learn more. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/woodchuck-partners-with-walbridge-to-help-advance-customers-construction-sustainability-goals-302723015.html SOURCE Woodchuck The articles, information, and content displayed on this webpage may include materials prepared and provided by third parties. Such third-party content is offered for informational purposes only and is not endorsed, reviewed, or verified by Morningstar. Morningstar makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any third-party content displayed on this site. 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Walbridge leader calls data centers michigan's biggest economic chance in 150 years. Michigan has an "enormous" opportunity to capitalize on the data center boom and cannot allow naysayers to deny it from getting a piece of the best economic development opportunity since the automobile's invention, longtime business leader John Rakolta Jr. said Thursday. The chairman of construction giant Walbridge, which builds data centers, made the case for them and urged others to do the same in remarks at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Detroit Policy Conference.