Pictured left to right: Steve, Katie and Matthew Kiner stand on the site of their new Kiner, Inc., facility, a 20,000 sq. ft. facility located on Matson Industrial Industrial Avenue.
An Aurora-based construction/fabrication business that has been building things for area clients since the 1980s is now expanding its operations with a new 20,000 sq. ft. facility just off Highway 34.
Father and son co-owners Steve and Matthew Kiner have been thinking about building a stand-alone site for their family-owned business — Kiner, Inc. — for years and are excited to finally see their dream become a reality on the west edge of town.
“This is something we have talked about for quite a while and always wanted to do, but we were working all the time so nobody had time to sit down and do it,” Matthew shared. “Then Dad kind of freed up some time for a while where one of us could step back and go forward with it. It takes a lot of hours to put something like this together.”
Construction has begun on a facility expected to be completed by next spring. The foundation is already visible on a site just south of Highway 34 along Matson Industrial Avenue.
“Every year we meet, probably for the last 10 years, we said we were going to put a building up,” Steve said. “It wasn’t going to get any cheaper and so we thought it was just time to go ahead with it. As for the size, everybody builds a building and they end up adding on and adding on. We said we were going to build this one time, so let’s build it big enough.”
Thus the floor plan ended up featuring a 100×200 foot fabrication area, with an additional 40×60 foot area devoted to office space. Matthew said he is excited about the idea of moving into a new facility, as well as its prime location along the Highway 34 corridor.
“As much as we go that direction, headed west out of town for all kinds of activities, whether it be for work or just in general, it seems like that’s the path I take all the time,” he said. “When I drove by that location I just kept thinking that’s where I want to put a building up. With the flow of traffic coming into town from that direction, that’s the first thing you see. I mean, you notice the ethanol plant, there’s that gap and then you get right into town and that’s where I felt I wanted to be.”
The land was owned by Streeter LLC, a combination of the Farr and Wortman trusts, which made the site available to the Kiners and actually helped work through some of the planning details. “We were excited that they were interested in it and got in touch with both the Aurora Development Corporation and the city,” explained Gary Warren, a board member with Streeter LLC. “Kelsey Bergen (executive director of the ADC) helped figure out a way to get an infrastructure grant that would help a little bit, because it was going to take a lot of paving, sewer and water costs to extend that first 500 feet or so that needed to be added. We appreciate that help and in putting things together, and we also appreciate the city’s help as they shared in the cost of the street, too. So it was a combination of Streeter resources, city resources, Department of Economic Development resources and ADC that kind of helped herd this thing through to make it go.”
Bergen noted that the $200,000 DED Site and Building Development Fund grant is a first for the community. “They were eligible for this fund because they were an expanding manufacturing business,” Bergen said. “While we are always excited to see new development in our community, it is extra special when we see local businesses growing and expanding.”
That show of support and additional resources helped encourage the Kiners to make a significant investment in the community. “The conversation started with Gary and he really helped with the location,” said Katie Kiner, Matthew’s wife, who has served a key behind-the-scenes organizational role in the third-generation family business for 17 years. “Then he brought Kelsey in and just having those contacts to help us made such a difference in knowing what to do next. They were a great help because we knew what we wanted, and they were a lot of help with us getting there.”
Matthew and Katie have three children: Sawyer, Layne and Julia, ages 14, 13 and 9.
Kiner, Inc., history
The family’s involvement in local business dates back to the early 1980s, when Steve made his first trip as a construction worker from Iowa to help build the Iams pet food plant west of Aurora.
“I was one of the first ones on site when it started,” Steve recalled of his tenure with Todd & Sargent. “Our main headquarters was in Ames, but we travelled all over the United States building elevators and feed mills.”
Steve made several trips to Aurora helping with various Iams construction projects and eventually decided to move here. Matthew went to work for Todd & Sergeant as well after graduating from high school, and moved here in 2000 about the time the company completed its final project for Iams. About that time, the father and son duo decided to form their own company, thus Kiner, Inc. was born.
“The main thing was getting off the road and quitting the travel,” Steve recalled. “I travelled in the construction business for 28 years and we were ready to settle down.”
“Dad had made so many connections and so many friends here,” Matthew added. “So when I was out of school, we decided to start our own deal and get off the road. It’s worked out really well.”
The company established a location on 14th Street in Aurora, where it has operated since that time.
“We’ve done a lot of building, fixing, repairs, things of that nature, plus we’ve installed a boatload of equipment,” Matthew said when asked to describe the company’s core products and services. “Dad has built all kinds of stuff, clear back to when I was younger with building race cars, and we just kind of had an interest in that kind of thing. A lot of times it’s just a one-off part somebody needed made, so you had to build it. That kind of falls into our niche.
“I’ve had people call and say, ‘Do you happen to have a plasma cutter?’” he continued. “Yes, we do. People talk about going to Joe’s garage to do some welding, or they need a piece of steel but didn’t know where to go to get it. We do all of that stuff, so being able to be convenient for the community is going to be a satisfaction for me. I mean, this is a great community, but there’s not a welding or fab shop of any kind here, so there’s a gap. Aurora is a very supportive town, and there’s a need for this.”
“When we worked for Todd & Sergent, we saw a lot of things done,” Steve added. “And so when we started our own business a customer would say, ‘Hey, I need this.’ We’d be the first one to raise our hand because we’d seen it done and could make it happen. We always try to accommodate the customer and give them what they want.”
Once the new facility is completed next spring, the Kiner’s plan to have more equipment on site, which will eventually require additional staff. They are actively looking for employees.
“We love to do the one-off stuff, and the repair work is always fun to do,” Matthew said. ‘But we’re looking forward to more of the volume, building 10 or 20 of whatever it is, that’s kind of my hope.”
Now that the Kiner project is moving forward, Warren said it is the kind of business which helps Aurora, Hamilton County and Nebraska grow.
“It’s locally owned, progressive and providing services which help other industries and agricultural operations in our area grow as well,” he said. “Streeter has been wanting to start moving the development further south and we hope this is a big step in that direction. Now we’re looking for who might be the next one or two possibilities going south from there as well.
“It’s kind of like Highway 14 and Mission Critical,” he concluded. “You know you get a little bit more street in there, you get a couple of businesses sitting there and it begins to take shape as an industrial park, where other people might say, ‘Yep, that’s a good place to be.’”
The Kiner’s concluded by offering thanks to Warren and Streeter LLC, as well as Bergen with the ADC and city officials for their help in making their dream become a reality.
Source: Kurt Johnson – Aurora News-Register