Demien Farrell: From Fighting Change Orders to Driving Industry Change: The Mexico Solution

On this episode, Kevin chats with Damien Farrell, founder of West Modular, a construction company manufacturing modular apartment buildings from a 210,000 square foot facility in Tijuana that can produce 1,500-2,000 apartments annually in half the time of conventional construction. Damien brings over $500MM in completed developments to the conversation, including three major hotels—Dream Hollywood, Thompson Hollywood, and Tommie Hollywood—plus a hospitality portfolio that grew to 20 venues across three states before being acquired by Las Vegas-based Hakkasan Group. The conversation explores how his frustration with cost overruns, delays, and change orders on those projects, combined with experience entitling and permitting over $1B in developments, drove him to commit to what he calls "the future of construction." Damien discusses the technical and financial challenges plaguing development today, and how modular construction addresses not just the product itself but the myriad of external challenges that make housing unaffordable and projects difficult to fund.