CABN, a company which already offers a catalogue of prefabricated sustainable homes, is stepping into the commercial sector with a 2,400-square-foot facility for National Car Rental in Trenton, Ont.

Cross-laminated wood components made at its 93,000-square-foot factory in Brockville, Ont. are being shipped and assembled on site. The structure is to include two car wash bays, offices, a reception room, meeting spaces and a staff area.

Construction began early in February, with occupancy scheduled for late March to early spring.

To bolster its net-zero design, a 27,000-watt solar array will be on the roof, complemented with battery storage with capacity to produce enough electricity to meet the building's needs. A heat pump will provide the heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

“We’ve seen a huge shift in the (commercial) market for better built buildings,” CABN chief operating officer Alex Kelly said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada. “As we continue to see government support to build housing, we can’t just do that in a silo and create housing and create these developments and communities without any other supportive services.” 

CABN has more commercial buildings in its development pipeline, she said, including one that will be up to five times larger.

WARE.HOUSE

Just like its homes, CABN employs a panelized approach to the project in Trenton, based on a framework named WARE.HOUSE. A building is put together piece by piece on site in a simplified construction process that uses fasteners, designed to be finished within days.

The building envelope was up in three to four days, with CABN’s team on hand preparing to install cladding and windows, Kelly explained.

Cross-laminated timber, which is comprised of wood layers glued together, is sustainably sourced by CABN. The material has the benefit of trapping carbon and contributing to the building insulation value.

The design and orientation are intended to maximize energy efficiency, further assisted by triple-pane glazed windows and air tightness. The solar system on the roof will have the capacity to exceed 100 per cent of the facility’s electricity needs, she explained.

CABN aims to maintain its standard of buildings that produce 52 kilograms of carbon dioxide per metre squared, or less, across its life cycle with WARE.HOUSE.

Unlike most of its projects that use helical piles — screws drilled underground to form a building’s foundation — WARE.HOUSE will be set on a concrete slab to enable drainage. Though the base is contributing greenhouse gas emissions from concrete, Kelly said the sustainability features such as the solar panels and cross-laminated timber help to offset that.

WARE.HOUSE is being built at a cost of approximately $250 per square foot. Kelly said CABN clients have also been reporting to the company they are securing better lending rates because of the speed of construction and the sustainability elements.

Future commercial builds

After starting off in housing with models such as the one-bedroom, 540-square-foot MOR.II to the four-bedroom, 1,850-square-foot GES.TALT, CABN heard from clients asking if the company would be able to service commercial needs, Kelly said.

WARE.HOUSE was born out of the demand, and will be used in applications well beyond the needs of the National Car rental facility, because it is adjustable. Current planned uses are an art gallery planned for the West Coast of Canada, and a building to store agricultural equipment in California.

A significant upgrade in size is on the horizon for one of CABN's next projects: an approximately 12,000-square-foot custom club house in Atlantic Canada that will host the central operations for a sporting facility.

Developers are also collaborating with CABN on accessory buildings such as small grocery or retail stores.

“If the opportunity exists for commercial, let’s do that for sustainability, but also faster building, and buildings in harder-to-reach places with potentially less labour or resourcing in general,” Kelly said.

CABN’s ‘exciting’ 2025

Since its founding in 2021, CABN has finished or has in progress four projects: two homes, the National Car Rental project, and its showhome.

Its rapidly expanding pipeline has 35 projects in the wings, Kelly said, with $16.5 million in sales since May 2023.

2025 will be an “exciting”, banner year for CABN as the company will launch pre-sales for a development in eastern Ontario that will offer a mix of single-family and multiresidential housing.

Kelly also highlighted that CABN received funding from the Canadian government to install advanced robotics at its manufacturing facility which will boost its production sixfold.