diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 3b9086c7187dc..7a483647593b0 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 sbt/*.jar
 .settings
 .cache
+cache
 .generated-mima*
-/build/
 work/
 out/
 .DS_Store
diff --git a/build/mvn b/build/mvn
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..9e968e4fd5a98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/mvn
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Determine the current working directory
+DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
+
+# Called before any binaries are installed for any unknown operating system.
+# Current checks are as follows:
+# - NA
+prep_install_for_unknown() {
+  echo "ERROR: Forced installation is not available at this time for an"
+  echo "Operating System of type $OSTYPE"
+  exit 1
+}
+
+# Called before any binaries are installed for the Solaris operating system.
+# Current checks are as follows:
+# - NA
+prep_install_for_solaris() {
+  echo "ERROR: Forced installation is not available at this time for"
+  echo "Solaris-based systems."
+  exit 1
+}
+
+# Called before any binaries are installed for the BSD operating system.
+# Current checks are as follows:
+# - NA
+prep_install_for_bsd() {
+  echo "ERROR: Forced installation is not available at this time for BSD-based systems."
+  exit 1
+}
+
+# Called before any binaries are installed for the Linux operating system.
+# Current checks are as follows:
+# - NA
+prep_install_for_linux() {
+  echo
+}
+
+# Called before any binaries are installed for the OS X operating system.
+# Current checks are as follows:
+# - 'brew' must be installed
+prep_install_for_osx() {
+  [ -z "`which brew 2>/dev/null`" ] && \
+    echo "ERROR: Must have 'brew' installed for forced installation on OSX." && \
+    echo "       - You can download 'brew' at: http://brew.sh/" && \
+    exit 1
+}
+
+# Determine if a given application is already installed and, if not, check for
+# forced installation,
+## Arg1 - application name
+check_and_install_app() {
+  if [ -z "`which $1 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
+    # attempt to force install if flagged
+    if [ -n "${FORCE_INSTALL}" ]; then
+      local resource="${DIR}/packages/$1.sh"
+      if [ -f "$resource" ]; then
+        source "${DIR}/packages/$1.sh"
+        prep_install_for_${_OSTYPE}
+        install_$1_for_${_OSTYPE}
+      else
+        echo "ERROR: Cannot find the $1.sh build file from within ${DIR}/packages."
+        echo "       Ensure the file exists and is accesible."
+        exit 1
+      fi
+    # else exit with error message
+    else
+      echo "ERROR: $1 isn't installed; please install or automatically force install (-f)."
+      exit 2
+    fi
+  fi
+}
+
+# Set a cleaned OS type string based on the $OSTYPE bash variable
+case "$OSTYPE" in
+  solaris*)
+    _OSTYPE="solaris"
+    ;;
+  darwin*)
+    _OSTYPE="osx"
+    ;;
+  linux*)
+    _OSTYPE="linux"
+    ;;
+  bsd*)
+    _OSTYPE="bsd"
+    ;;
+  *)
+    _OSTYPE="unknown"
+    ;;
+esac
+
+# Here we build our own CLI event loop with the '--' as the stop
+OPT="$1"
+while [ ! "$OPT" = "--" -a ! $# -eq 0 ]; do
+  case $OPT in
+    -f)
+      FORCE_INSTALL=1
+      shift
+      ;;
+    -p=*)
+      ZINC_PORT=${OPT/-p=/}
+      shift
+      ;;
+    *)
+      echo "Unknown option: $OPT"
+      shift
+      ;;
+  esac
+  OPT="$1"
+done
+shift
+
+# Setup healthy defaults for the Zinc port if none were provided
+ZINC_PORT=${ZINC_PORT:-"3030"}
+
+# Check and install all applications necessary to fully build Spark
+check_and_install_app "mvn"
+check_and_install_app "zinc"
+check_and_install_app "scala"
+
+# Now that zinc is ensured to be installed, check its status and, if not
+# running, start it
+if [ -z "`zinc -status`" ]; then
+  zinc -start -port ${ZINC_PORT}
+fi
+
+# Determine the parameters pushed in from the command line and, if any are
+# present, use those within the maven
+if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
+  mvn "$@"
+else
+  mvn clean package -DskipTests
+fi
diff --git a/build/packages/mvn.sh b/build/packages/mvn.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..1a37853f86c1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/packages/mvn.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+MVN_URL="http://apache.claz.org/maven/maven-3/3.2.3/binaries/apache-maven-3.2.3-bin.tar.gz"
+
+install_mvn_for_linux() {
+  echo
+}
+
+install_mvn_for_osx() {
+  brew install maven
+}
+
diff --git a/build/packages/scala.sh b/build/packages/scala.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..1c25edf902a6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/packages/scala.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+SCALA_URL="http://downloads.typesafe.com/scala/2.11.4/scala-2.11.4.tgz"
+
+install_scala_for_linux() {
+  echo
+}
+
+install_scala_for_osx() {
+  brew install scala
+}
diff --git a/build/packages/zinc.sh b/build/packages/zinc.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..3d5e8ece9ca9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/packages/zinc.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+ZINC_URL="http://downloads.typesafe.com/zinc/0.3.5.3/zinc-0.3.5.3.tgz"
+
+install_zinc_for_linux() {
+  echo
+}
+
+install_zinc_for_osx() {
+  brew install zinc
+}
diff --git a/sbt/sbt b/build/sbt
similarity index 100%
rename from sbt/sbt
rename to build/sbt
diff --git a/sbt/sbt-launch-lib.bash b/build/sbt-launch-lib.bash
similarity index 100%
rename from sbt/sbt-launch-lib.bash
rename to build/sbt-launch-lib.bash