On April 20, 2023, KCIC held the annual Brick-by-Brick Awards at Boulevard Brewing Company. The awards recognize those businesses that have made outstanding contributions to the economic strength of the industrial core of Kansas City. These businesses invest in and strengthen Kansas City’s industrial districts, and beyond.
This year, we recognized six businesses based on the key principles of the Brick-by-Brick awards: capital improvements, job creation, improved infrastructure and relocation or expansion in one of the city’s industrial areas.
Congratulations to our 2023 Brick by Brick Awards Winners for making Kansas City a better place to work and succeed:
Transition Center of Kansas City — Renovation & Reimagining Center of Service
The Missouri Department of Corrections recently invested roughly $500,000 into the former Kansas City Re-entry Center and re-opened in April 2022 as the Transition Center of Kansas City. This restorative re-entry center concept is a new strategy in the corrections field, based on successful studies in Eastern Europe. The Transition Center of Kansas City is in the Historic West Bottoms and is one of the first transition centers in the United States to implement this progressive concept.
Frontier Schools
Frontier Schools continue to add value to the Northeast Industrial District with every thoughtful project they take on. In 2020, Frontier Schools purchased the TNEMEC building to be used as their new Central Office building. Last year, they completely renovated the first floor into an Innovation Lab space for their students. Other recent renovations include the addition of two state-of-the-art gymnasiums and the opening of Frontier STEM High School.
KC Pallets
In 2022, KC Pallets invested a total of $1.5 million dollars to purchase five acres of land in the Blue Valley, including 30,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 3,000 square feet of office space — and created 12 jobs along the way. In addition to acquiring new buildings and acreage, KC Pallets also invested in a high-volume electric wood waste grinder that processes all their wood waste into mulch and sediment control devices. KC Pallets processes about 2,000 used wood pallets per day and recycles 95% of the wood fiber into new pallets and more!
Moly-Cop USA
As a manufacturer for the mining industry, Moly-Cop USA recognized a need to stay competitive to ensure the company’s future success. This led them to invest $785,000 in the Drop Ball Tester — a custom piece of testing equipment that allows for quality assurance and vetting new suppliers. This effort has also guaranteed the future viability of over 50 manufacturing jobs.
Wellness Warehouse
1400 West 9th Street has a long history of being industrial and gritty: a machine shop, maintenance shop, granite fabrication shop, even a personal workshop. In the last three years it has been transformed into the Wellness Warehouse, a fitness and health gym where clients can become their best through personal training, group fitness classes, a wellness studio and more. It is a beautiful example of what can be done with a little imagination and a lot of hard work.
This year, KCIC recognized five projects that reflect the innovations and improvements KC Water made to Kansas City’s infrastructure in 2022.
Round Grove Basin Pump Station Rehabilitation Project
The Round Grove Basin Pump Station is located just east of Interstate 435, off Coal Mine Road. This pump station rehabilitation project remedied the station’s reliability issues by installing five brand-new pumps, which increased the capacity from 22 million gallons per day to 60 million gallons per day.
Other improvements included a new electrical building and a fiber connection that allows the operations team to monitor the pump station from the Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant. This $19-million-dollar project was substantially completed in the spring of last year.
Lower Blue River Basin Relief Sewer – 45th Street
The project team made the conscious decision to relocate the diversion structure to avoid deep trench cuts, realigned part of the sanitary sewer to connect with 45th Street and replaced the downstream section with a new 18-inch sewer. This $1.1 million dollar project was designed to reduce the combined sewer overflow frequency from 12 events to one or fewer events per year.
15th Street Pump Station Upgrade & Sewer Separation Project
This pump station upgrade and sewer separation included the separation of approximately 22 acres of combined sewer near Truman Road and the Blue River. By repairing the sewer system upstream, the project team was able to eliminate sewer overflows into the Blue River. This project had a total investment of $5.3 million dollars and was substantially completed in September 2022.
East Bottoms Pump Station Rehabilitation Phase 3 Project
KC Water’s East Bottoms Pump Station is the second-largest water pump station in the KC metro, and it serves much of the eastern half of the city.
Phase 3 of this rehab involved some major upgrades and renovations including increasing the capacity of the pump station by 30% and replacing the nearly 100-year-old piping and valves. KC Water completed this $15-million-dollar project in partnership with Burns & McDonnell Engineering and Garney Construction.
Westside Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility Plan
Protecting our waterways and providing clean water are two of KC Water’s highest priorities. This $40-million-dollar investment to expand the Westside Wastewater Treatment plant aides in reducing the volume of sewer overflows into the Missouri River. Improvements included upgrades to outdated equipment and expanding the facility’s wet weather treatment capacity by 20 million gallons per day.
Thank you to all of our sponsors and board members for your help in making this awards program a reality year after year.