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Kennedy Tank & Manufacturing Co. has carried its business from the depths to the heights of Indianapolis -- all within the space of two city blocks.
The underground-steel-tank fabricator buried a tank about 30 feet under the Indiana National Bank Tower back in 1969, and today it readies the twin towers that will soar skyward atop the Bank One Tower, making them the highest manmade points in the state.
A little farther away, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, if an observer looked closely at the fuel tanks along Pit Row, he'd likely see the Kennedy Tank & Manufacturing nameplate.
Yet Kennedy is a relatively well-kept secret in Indianapolis as it enters its 90th year of business. Started in the 400 block of South Illinois Street by the current president's grandfather, who was a real boilermaker, it was known as P.W. Kennedy Boiler & Sheet & Iron Works.
Today it employs 125 people at its two local shops, and its four divisions produce sales of just over $20 million.
Good numbers, especially considering the fact that Kennedy has competitors in every direction within a 150-mile radius. But Kennedy's experience, along with a key innovation it collaborated on in the late 1960s, has carved the company a nifty niche in the protected-steel-tank and steel-fabrication business.
The founder's son, W.E. Kennedy, moved the business toward custom fabrication and building underground storage tanks before he retired in 1947.
The current chairman of the company, William E. Kennedy Jr., has spent more than 45 years working in the business and still maintains a tight rein on operations. He moved the company to its current location, just south of downtown, in 1954.
However, his son, Patrick W. Kennedy, has worked his way through the ranks to executive vice president and is being groomed to lead the company when his father steps down.
Considering the company's name, its best-known product is also its least visible: underground tanks for fuel and hazardous-material storage. Since the company buried its first steel tank about 70 years ago, Kennedy's business in that area has grown steadily, although it faced a major challenge in the 1960s from the makers of fiberglass tanks.
The rival tanks gained favor for two reasons: National companies were manufacturing them, and fiberglass...