As KCI Construction Work Continues, Major Contractor Gets Millions in Feds' PPP Fund

Jul. 9--One of Kansas City's powerhouse construction firms working on the forthcoming single terminal at Kansas City International Airport received between $2 million and $5 million in a federal coronavirus relief loan, program records show.

While across the country COVID-19 has led to drop-offs in the construction industry, Clarkson Construction Co. still has several major city contracts as well as the airport project. Yet company officials say they've been affected by the downturn and decided to apply for the federal relief funds to help keep employees working.

The Kansas City-based infrastructure construction firm is part of a joint venture with two out-of-town companies -- Clark Construction Group and the Weitz Company -- managing construction on the new KCI terminal. It also won a contract to do part of the road construction there. And it has more than $23 million in city contracts for roads, bridges and water main projects.

Those projects are still ongoing -- and some are just getting underway and haven't yielded payments for Clarkson yet. A significant portion of those contracts will be paid to Clarkson's various subcontractors.

So far this year, Kansas City doesn't have any new construction contracts with Clarkson.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the firm turned to the federal Paycheck Protection Program, meant to limit job losses from the economic downturn. According to data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the firm received the loan to save 125 jobs, which Clarkson's chief financial officer, Brooks McCord, said represents about half its current payroll.

"We qualified for ... the PPP loan based on the rules of the loan, and the funds were used to support jobs here in the Kansas City community," McCord said.

McCord added: "The pandemic affects everybody in different ways, and we've definitely gone through the analysis of the things that have affected us and felt that the application was warranted, and the application was approved by the SBA."

McCord declined to discuss specifically how the pandemic has affected Clarkson's business in terms of work lost or contracts canceled. The airport project, according to the city's Aviation Department, is still on time.

Clarkson is a minority partner in the CWC group, and it won a $24 million joint contract with Realm Construction, a woman-owned firm, to build the elevated roadway for cars arriving at the terminal.

The new KCI terminal is expected to open in early 2023 and cost $1.5 billion. It's being developed by Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, a subsidiary of Clark.

In April, crews began erecting structural steel at the new terminal. That work is expected to continue until next year.

Clarkson is one of more than 90,000 Missouri companies to receive a PPP loan, including more than 11,000 whose names were disclosed after receiving loans of $150,000 or more.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry lost 164,000 jobs in March and more than 1 million jobs in April. Since then, the industry has rebounded somewhat, but jobs have not yet reached their pre-pandemic levels.

The Star's Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.

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