You Can Count On It: How Block And Mortar Aims To Bring More Certainty To Predevelopment

In a commercial real estate development environment where pricing is uncertain, deadlines can be missed and any number of other factors can slow a project, careful early planning is essential to keep work on schedule and on budget.

Too often, however, predevelopment efforts can be stymied by misaligned objectives, inaccurate analysis or siloed stakeholders who should be working in unison. 

Block and Mortar, a Kansas City, Missouri-based construction technology startup, is developing a solution to address the uncertainties that arise during preplanning, which can continue to cause problems throughout the life of a project if not addressed. 

“Many existing software tools pick up once construction starts, but the most important strategic decisions are often made long before that,” founder and CEO Usman Wajid said. “We’re trying to reduce uncertainty during the phase of a project where uncertainty is traditionally the highest.”

The goal is a more connected development ecosystem with better outcomes throughout the project’s life because decisions are made with confidence at the earliest stages, he said. 

Block and Mortar set out to achieve three objectives for developers, owners and other project stakeholders: to automate old processes, such as those that relied on email, text messaging and spreadsheets; to improve collaboration; and to provide better insights for the team, Wajid said. It also aims to provide insights quickly so project analyses and projections that might ordinarily take weeks or months to complete can be accomplished in minutes.

The technology is designed for real estate professionals as they work, Wajid said, not as a product created solely on a software developer’s desktop, far from an actual worksite. 

“We want to address users’ real pain points rather than building in a silo and only adding steps to their process,” he said. “I believe that AI should work around the humans, not the humans around the AI.”

To learn how Block and Mortar seeks to accomplish this, Bisnow asked Wajid to walk through the product and its development.

Bisnow: You’ve said that you’re building Block and Mortar with your partners in mind. What does that mean in practice? 

Wajid: It means we’re not building software in a vacuum. We’re building alongside developers, contractors, brokers, consultants, insurance partners and operators who are actively involved in predevelopment and early project planning every day. Our road map is shaped directly by the friction points they experience in real projects, not assumptions made by a tech company.

We spend time inside our partners’ workflows to understand how decisions are made, where information breaks down and why projects slow down before construction even starts. The goal of the platform is to help teams move from fragmented spreadsheets and disconnected conversations to a shared intelligence layer that helps everyone evaluate projects faster and with more confidence.

Bisnow: What sort of actionable insights do you generate for them?

Wajid: Those insights include cost feasibility, scenario modeling, budget implications, scheduling risk, site selection, market conditions, stakeholder alignment and early-stage decision-making. We want teams to understand the downstream impact of decisions before they become expensive problems later in the process.

Bisnow: How does Block and Mortar address the tough issues that teams often face at the outset of a project?

Wajid: The platform creates a centralized environment where teams can model scenarios collaboratively and evaluate trade-offs in real time. Instead of waiting weeks for updated spreadsheets, revised estimates or disconnected feedback loops, stakeholders can iterate faster and align earlier.

For pricing, we help teams organize and analyze historical cost data, market conditions and project assumptions to make estimating more dynamic and transparent. For scheduling, the platform helps identify potential bottlenecks and sequencing risks earlier in the process. And from a stakeholder buy-in perspective, one of the biggest advantages is visibility — everyone can understand why decisions are being made and what impact they have on the broader project.

Bisnow: You’ve been consulting with members of the Kansas City construction community in the development of the platform. What feedback are they giving you?

Wajid: They are excited about finally having a platform focused on predevelopment and early project analysis, which historically has been underserved by technology. 

Users like the ability to collaborate more efficiently, iterate on scenarios faster and reduce the amount of manual back-and-forth required to evaluate a project. They also appreciate that we’re building it around how real estate and construction teams already think and work, rather than forcing them into rigid workflows.

Bisnow: What refinements are early users suggesting?

Wajid: They are pushing us to go deeper with more integrations with existing systems, more asset-specific modeling capabilities, stronger forecasting tools and more ways to protect and structure proprietary project data. That feedback has been extremely valuable because it helps us prioritize features that create real operational value instead of just adding technology for the sake of it.

Bisnow: What do Block and Mortar users need to bring to the table for the platform to be most effective?

Wajid: The teams that will get the most value are those willing to centralize project information early and create a more collaborative workflow across stakeholders.

That doesn’t mean users need perfect data from Day 1. In fact, part of our philosophy is to help teams make better decisions even in environments where information is incomplete or evolving. But the more context the platform has around project assumptions, budgets, timelines, site conditions, market dynamics and stakeholder priorities, the more powerful the insights become.

The other important component is collaboration: The platform works best when owners, contractors and partners are contributing insights together instead of operating in silos.

Bisnow: Does the product work across different asset classes?

Wajid: The core challenges during predevelopment are surprisingly consistent. Block and Mortar is being designed with a flexible data and modeling architecture that allows workflows and assumptions to adapt across office, mixed-use, retail, restaurant, industrial, multifamily, data center and other project types.

Bisnow: We’ve talked a lot about predevelopment, but how does Block and Mortar help through a project’s entire life cycle?

Wajid: The platform helps create continuity from concept through delivery.

As projects move forward, Block and Mortar can continue supporting teams through updated scenario analysis, cost tracking, stakeholder coordination, forecasting and operational decision-making. Because the platform maintains the historical context behind decisions, teams can better understand why certain assumptions were made and adjust more intelligently as conditions change.

Our vision is to help create a more connected development ecosystem where decisions made at the earliest stages continue to inform smarter outcomes all the way through project completion. And data from earlier projects helps the model get even smarter for our clients' future work, with the tool becoming even more powerful with the more projects our clients do.

This article was produced in collaboration between Block and Mortar and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.