User:Belshay/sandbox

Brick City Makes is a private non-profit organization based at 2528 Texas Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. It was established in 2016 as a joint project by the organizations St. Louis Makes and DeSales Community Development. Brick City Makes is noted as being the first non-profit organization in the United States to renovate an industrial building in order to provide rent space and development, as a business incubator, for entrepreneurial manufacturers. Several other cities have industrial business incubators, including the Industrial Council of Nearwest in Chicago, WIRE-Net in Cleveland, and Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center in Brooklyn. However, the primary purpose of existing models is to provide affordability of industrial space in expensive urban economies. The Brick City Makes business incubator is the first model in the US to focus on business support services that grow the expertise and profitability of manufacturers and inventors until their organizations are large enough to exit the incubator and launch independently elsewhere. The building purchased and under renovation is the historic five-story, 87,000 square foot former corporate headquarters of the International Hat Company, where the fiber helmet was manufactured for the United States Armed Forces.

Background
Brick City Makes was a concept developed by two different non-profit organizations. DeSales Community Development, formerly known as DeSales Community Housing Corporation, is a non-profit organization that has developed over $60 million in residential space in St. Louis. It is one of the oldest and largest such organizations in St. Louis. Its mission is to to promote investment in Fox Park and Tower Grove East neighborhoods in St. Louis. St. Louis Makes is a non-profit organization for the economic development of manufacturers and inventors. Its mission is to grow manufacturing revenue and employment across the St. Louis region’s manufacturing supply chain. In 2016, DeSales and St. Louis Makes jointly organized Brick City Makes, in order to develop adaptable urban loft space for light industrial manufacturing in the Fox Park community.

History
The Brick City Makes Hub was originally constructed for the Koken Barber Supply Company, in 1911. The company was once one of the largest manufacturers in the US. In 1928, Koken sold the factory to the International Harvest Hat Company. That same year, International Harvest Hat made 2528 Texas Avenue its corporate headquarters. At the time, International Harvest Hat was the largest manufacturer of harvest hats in the word.