This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

Eastside Lumber is a lumber and building-materials yard at 3232 E 18th Street in Kansas City, Missouri, operating on a site that has sold lumber since the late 1800s and traded as Albert Tamm Lumber Company from 1950. Daniel and Ebony Edwards bought the yard with support from the EDC Loan Corporation and renamed it; the legal entity, Robert Wiley Material Supply Company, carries the name of Daniel Edwards’s grandfather, an east-side builder who bought his materials from Albert Tamm. The company is Black-owned, describes itself as the metro’s only minority building-materials supplier, and has added a prefabricated-components division, Bilt-Blocks.

Description

Eastside Lumber is a lumber and building-materials yard on East 18th Street in Kansas City, Missouri, a few blocks east of Prospect Avenue and inside a federally designated Opportunity Zone.1 The site is one of the oldest continuously trading commercial parcels on the east side: according to owner Daniel Edwards, lumber has been sold from the location since the late 1800s, and it operated as Albert Tamm Lumber Company — a yard carrying more than eighteen product lines of lumber and hardware — from 1950.23

Daniel and Ebony Edwards purchased the business with financing support from the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City’s EDC Loan Corporation, and renamed it Eastside Lumber.3 The legal entity is Robert Wiley Material Supply Company, named for Daniel Edwards’s grandfather, an east-side builder who used Albert Tamm as his primary supplier and who took his grandson along on material runs to the same yard.2

The Edwardses position the business as more than a counter operation. They state that 87 percent of profits are reinvested into rebuilding the east side, and they are pursuing a 28-acre, six-block housing project of roughly 200 homes and 200,000 square feet of commercial space.2 To supply that pipeline the company launched Bilt-Blocks, a prefabricated-components division producing panelized wall, floor, and roof systems, with a stated initial capacity of 500 homes per year.1 The company describes itself, on the strength of its MBE/WBE status, as the only minority-owned building-material supplier in Kansas City, Missouri.3

Goods and services

  • Lumber and building materials supply to contractors and the public23
  • Hardware and allied product lines — the predecessor yard carried more than eighteen product lines3
  • Brokering of building materials3
  • Bilt-Blocks — panelized prefabricated wall, floor, and roof systems, and roof trusses, for residential and commercial construction1
  • Housing development — a 28-acre east-side project of roughly 200 homes and 200,000 sq ft of commercial space, in progress2
  • Retail walk-in counter hours and public-facing retail scope “ — the company’s current public presentation leads with manufacturing, and it is not confirmed here how much over-the-counter retail trade continues

History

The 3232 East 18th Street yard has sold lumber since the late 1800s.2 From 1950 it traded as Albert Tamm Lumber Company, a neighborhood building-supply house serving contractors on Kansas City’s east side, with more than eighteen product lines of lumber and hardware.3 Among its customers was Robert Wiley, a local builder whose grandson, Daniel Edwards, learned the trade riding along on material pickups.2

Daniel and Ebony Edwards acquired the yard with EDC Loan Corporation financing and renamed it Eastside Lumber.34 KSHB dates the purchase to April 2023;2 the company’s own site describes the acquisition as 2021.1 The two accounts may reflect an initial agreement and a later closing, but neither is smoothed over here.

Since the purchase the owners have pivoted the operation toward manufacturing and development, standing up the Bilt-Blocks prefabricated-components line to supply their own affordable-housing pipeline and outside builders.1

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Eastside Lumber — official site, Bilt-Blocks Advanced Manufacturing — asserts: Daniel Edwards owner and Summor White CEO; phone (816) 547-4748; location in the 18th & Prospect corridor within an Opportunity Zone; the yard was acquired in 2021 to support housing production; Bilt-Blocks produces panelized wall, floor, and roof systems and roof trusses; initial capacity 500 homes annually, scalable to 2,750; MBE, WBE, DBE, Section 3, and HUBZone certifications. This is the freshest first-party evidence of current operation captured in this pass. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. KSHB 41 — “KC Black-owned lumber yard honors loved one, revitalizes city’s east side” — asserts: Eastside Lumber is legally Robert Wiley Material Supply Company; co-owners Daniel and Ebony Edwards; purchase April 2023; the site has operated as a lumber yard since the late 1800s and was previously Albert Tamm Lumber Company; Daniel Edwards’s grandfather Robert Wiley was an east-side builder who used Albert Tamm as his primary supplier; 87 percent of profits reinvested on the east side; a 28-acre, six-block project of 200 homes and 200,000 sq ft of commercial space; contact projects@eastsidelumber.com. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City — “EDC Loan Corporation Supports Albert Tamm Lumber Company Purchase” — asserts: Daniel and Ebony Edwards purchased Albert Tamm Lumber Company at 3232 East 18th Street with EDC Loan Corporation (LoanUp) support; Albert Tamm Lumber had been in business since 1950 with more than 18 product lines of lumber and hardware; the buyers planned to expand into manufacturing and brokering of building materials, leveraging MBE/WBE status as the only minority building-material supplier in Kansas City, MO. (Direct fetch returned HTTP 403; content read via search-engine extraction 2026-08-14.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City — Facebook video post on the Edwards purchase — asserts: Daniel and Ebony Edwards bought Albert Tamm Lumber Co., now Eastside Lumber, on East 18th Street, with EDC Loan Corp LoanUp financing. ↩

Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/eastside-lumber · record updated 2026-08-14