News
Niche Block Manufacturer Grows in New York State
By: JONATHAN MENT, Freeman staff 07/21/2002
TOWN OF ULSTER - Louis Grasso and Elliot Kracko drove to
Ulster County to buy a truck from bankrupt Miron Building Supply.
They ended up buying Miron's concrete block division. The business it
became is about to grow fourfold.
Now, as Kingston Block & Masonry Supply, they are investing
around $6 million in a new facility on the former site of Frank's
Nursery on Kiefer Lane.
The company has been working out of three former Miron sites since
December 2000: The Lake Katrine home center, a manufacturing facility
at Island Dock and a millwork shop and garage near the new plant.
All three were leased - the first and last leases Grasso said he has
ever or will ever sign. The new 25,000-square-foot plant is
company-owned. About $2.5 million of the start up costs is from
private investment. An additional $3.5 million in tax-exempt bonds
was borrowed, with help from Ulster County's Industrial Development
Agency and Development Corp. Grasso, 60, said Ulster County's
economic development groups were excellent to work with.
The site will be home to 10 massive kilns, six 50-foot-tall rooftop
silos and computerized concrete block manufacturing machinery.
There's a 2,700-square-foot retail showroom, a stockyard, offices and parking.
Each week, the company will combine roughly 10,000 tons of aggregate,
sand or stone with about 1,000 tons of concrete, churning out
millions of blocks per year.
Grasso said the site is perfect for this business. He didn't need a
zoning board variance, and the Planning Board approved the project.
"There really aren't too many six-acre parcels with adequate
access," he said. "I didn't want to fight (a zoning board)."
Unlike Frank's Nursery, which largely failed to draw retail customers
away from the competition, Grasso said the company will be a
destination business. People looking for the type of blocks they will
make will come from about 100 miles around, said Ralph Acampora, the
chief operations officer.
More then a dozen employees of Grasso Bros. General Contracting,
Grasso's main operation, have been working on the renovation. His
sons, Louis Jr. and Patrick, are also involved. Once the plant is
operating in September, some 30 people will work there full time.
Many previously worked for Miron.
"Miron had a lot of people working here over the years,"
Grasso said. "All these jobs would have been lost if we didn't
open it back up again. The reason we kept the business here ... was
the labor pool. It's really the people that make the business."
Grasso said he got the idea for a block factory after building one
for a friend in Westchester County. His 75-year-old family business,
which began as a masonry firm, now uses a lot of its own block product.
But most of its product is used for institutional projects. Currently
the company is manufacturing block for the expansion of Hurley Ridge
Market. Acampora said the company will also bid on blocks for the
Ulster County Jail and a Kingston Hospital project.
©Daily Freeman 2004 |
