08.28.2024 | Global Miami Magazine
In partnership with a Turkish investor, RENCO brings a new way to build in the U.S.
In partnership with a Turkish investor, RENCO brings a new way to build in the U.S.
For many, LEGOS bring back fond memories from childhood, of days spent snapping together the tiny building blocks to build houses, spaceships, or anything else you could imagine. Now, a Miami-based construction company is using the same principle, with a composite technology from Turkey, to build real houses and apartment complexes.
Just like the LEGO system, RENCO USA uses molded blocks that fit together – except to create full-scale structures that can withstand a category 5 hurricane. With nothing more than its blocks, a glue gun, a mallet, and a crew of 11 people, the company was able to build a 96-unit apartment complex in Palm Springs, Florida, in just two months. Finished at the end of last year, RENCO USA’s first apartment building signals the company’s readiness to expand after its extensive testing period.
Founded in 2012 by Thomas Murphy Jr. (the founder of Coastal Construction) and Engin Yesil, a Turkish investor, RENCO USA has undergone more than 400 tests over twelve years for U.S. building approval. “RENCO is the fourth way to build in the world,” says RENCO USA’s managing director (and Thomas’ son) Patrick Murphy. “If you’re looking at the developed world, you have metal, you have concrete, and you have wood. Those are the three structural systems that you can build with, but now RENCO is the fourth-ever approved by the International Building Council for the US.” Short for renewable composite, RENCO’s blocks are made of repurposed glass fibers, resin, and stone.
While RENCO USA was founded in 2012, its materials had been used by RENCO Global in Turkey since the previous year. The material was created to help the country rebuild faster after earthquakes, and it’s now used in Iraq, Syria, and other Middle East countries. RENCO USA has been importing its materials from the original factory in Manisa, Turkey, but it will soon open a factory in Palm Beach County capable of producing enough blocks to build 6,000 apartment units per year.
RENCO’s blocks are both less expensive than traditional materials and greener. According to the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute, a non-profit that researches the carbon footprint of construction, RENCO materials contain 82 percent less embodied carbon than structural steel and 62 percent less embodied carbon than reinforced concrete. The blocks are also lighter than their concrete counterparts, thus requiring less energy and fewer vehicles to transport. Murphy says that for every truckload of RENCO’s composite materials, it takes four trucks to deliver the same quantity of concrete block.
And because RENCO is lighter and about 20 percent cheaper than wood or concrete options, it’s more cost-efficient in places where labor is expensive. “With RENCO, we’ve found the higher the labor costs, the more money you save. In places like New York, California, and Florida, where development is really expensive, you end up saving more,” says Murphy. Murphy adds that with RENCO, builders can also tap into the unskilled labor force; training workers to use RENCO materials takes only a few hours. “What we offer is a superior way to build the structure of the building. And you can finish it any way you want, in marble, granite, whatever,” says Murphy. With the Palm Beach factory soon to open, Murphy expects the company – already valued at over $300M – to expand rapidly in the coming year.
