New York City-based Turner Construction is expanding its footprint in industrialized construction with the launch of a new subsidiary focused on offsite manufacturing and construction services, the company announced May 6. The new business, called xPL Offsite, aims to meet rising demand for prefabrication and modular solutions across a range of sectors.

According to Turner’s announcement, xPL Offsite will build on the company’s existing expertise in offsite manufacturing and modular project delivery to offer these services to clients nationwide. The move comes as the construction industry grapples with ongoing labor shortages, supply chain challenges and increasing pressure to speed up project timelines — factors that have led many owners to seek offsite solutions.

Drew Kerr, vice president and general manager of xPL Offsite, said the new company will focus initially on advanced technology projects such as semiconductor fabrication plants, data centers, and electric vehicle manufacturing facilities, but it will also look for opportunities in other sectors. “We see the need for offsite techniques with projects such as semiconductor fabs, data centers and EV manufacturing plants,” Kerr said in the release. “Turner also recognizes its usefulness in other segments, such as sports and public assembly projects, healthcare and aviation.”

Bringing manufacturing in-house

xPL Offsite will operate out of a 200,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing facility in Decatur, Alabama, which will serve as its production hub. The company plans to deliver a suite of modular building products from the facility, including central utility plants, MEP skids and racks, modular bathroom pods, clean rooms, and IT closets, per the announcement.

By establishing its own manufacturing facility, Turner aims to control more aspects of the supply chain and project delivery, while also giving clients a more predictable and streamlined construction process. The company’s leadership believes the new approach will help reduce risk, improve quality, and compress project schedules for complex projects.

Kerr noted that Turner was careful to ensure the new venture would be viable before moving forward. “We did our due diligence to make sure the business would pencil out first,” Kerr said. “Company leaders wanted to avoid burdening design partners, subs, internal resources and clients with something that didn’t make sense.”

He acknowledged that offsite manufacturing isn’t a fit for every job. “It’s not a business that fits every project, every client, every tight market segment,” Kerr told Construction Dive. “We have to focus on where it makes the most sense.”

A strategic bet despite economic headwinds

Turner’s move into offsite manufacturing comes amid an uncertain economic environment, with ongoing tariff fluctuations adding to volatility in material pricing and supply chains. Nevertheless, Kerr said the decision to launch xPL Offsite was driven by confidence in the growth trajectory of Turner’s advanced technology market segment.

“There’s certainly things that you have to overcome and challenges for the industry to overcome, but we see the growth and we see the driven opportunity from the clients, who are not stopping development in these market segments over the next one to three years and beyond,” Kerr said. “We see that opportunity, right now, as our time to get in, support our Turner business and support our clients, programmatically, even outside of the Turner business.”

Industry context and broader implications

Industry analysts say Turner’s move signals the increasing importance of prefabrication and modular construction in delivering large-scale, technically complex projects. As data center and semiconductor fab construction booms in the U.S., driven by federal incentives and reshoring efforts, more contractors are looking to industrialized construction methods to meet aggressive schedules and mitigate skilled labor shortages.

The launch of xPL Offsite puts Turner among a growing number of major contractors creating in-house offsite manufacturing capabilities to better serve high-tech and mission-critical clients. By doing so, Turner not only seeks to strengthen its position in advanced technology markets but also to diversify its offerings to clients in other high-demand sectors.

With modular construction expected to continue gaining traction, Turner’s investment in xPL Offsite reflects a broader shift toward industrialized construction practices across the industry.

Originally reported by Matthew Thibault in Construction Dive.