Main Street, Wyoming; 1004; Urban Living in the Cowboy State

When many think about living in Wyoming this is what they picture more and more. Wyoming residents are reconsidering where and how they live. They're looking downtown and here they're finding ways to live in urban lifestyle in the Cowboys do. I mean I love to live downtown and that it made a lot of sense to go back and get these buildings going but we're not just another little podunk town anymore. Take your troubles with the gun maybe view room building by building downtowns across Wyoming are reclaiming their rules as the hub of their communities

historic renovations and new construction continue to live in the state's collective skyline and to the surprise of many Wyoming ites are trading their homes on the range in favor of apartments and lofts downtown. I could tell you that the first night I brought people up into the cold warehouse and pointed out that all over here there was going to be layoffs. They just nobody could get behind you even understand how it was going to do it. And so we just got to think that it would just make us luck on them. And so we just basically sold our houses and put the money that we had in our house into doing this law it was really as simple as that. This is just under 3000 just a little under 3000 square foot. It's got three bedrooms two bathrooms kitchen living room. I think it's looks like Manhattan.

You just wouldn't guess that it's here at least not this kind of space that they've maintained the break from the outside so that you've got that natural brick wall. There's actually Forty two hundred brick that came out of the old building next to the federal courthouse that the Department of Homeland Security said they had to tear down because it was a terrorist risk. There is 620 square feet of 80 year old oak that came out of the old steam plant downtown that they demolish it pretty much as a recycled wall. But this was way back when Channel 4 teams TV studio. And when I walked here and I really like the space I like the location of it and realized what could be done with something that people think gosh that's great. I really I'd like to be there.

The lighting is wonderful I'm on the west side of the building so I get to light morning light which is great. It works for me because I get to see everything without having to leave the apartment. I right over almost anything that's going on right downtown Chad and I think you really have to get used to the idea of shared living because we all grow up in our single family homes on our front lawns in our backyards and this is a shared space in the sense that the buildings are maintained and you don't have the backyard but you get to a place where you don't want to mow the lawn. You want to have the advantages of the terror. And this is wonderful you get to know your neighbors if you get to do all your shopping you make a little village of it.

The residential downtown is very important because you know if you have people here all the time they have to eat somewhere and buy their groceries somewhere. And that makes more businesses downtown and it kind of attracts a whole new bunch of businesses to back that up. And the more of those you can get in there the more dynamic you want the inspiration to build a more dynamic urban experience in Wyoming seems to have seeped north from Denver where in the 1990s the old warehouse district in lower downtown was reborn as Lodo. Yeah. When the Rockies came to Denver they started renovating LoDo and doing a lot of lofts. I would go down to watch the games and just I've looked at probably between 30 and 50 of the LOS in downtown Denver and various stages of

construction completion just a good idea see how they were doing and see what they were doing. Look at the different buildings and see what's in the what space. That's part of part of losses. You can only do space allows you to do it in Sheriden the 23000 square foot Steevens Freiberg are building allowed a retired couple from Denver to construct this 10000 square foot luxury law. It offers cosmopolitan living right down the street from Cowboy watering holes the loft occupies what was once the ladies department of Wyoming the first large department store.

Naturally the prominent buildings of yesterday are attractive to the urban redevelopment as of today. One of the tallest structures in downtown Laramie the Wagner building is being converted into a mix of commercial and residential spaces. And in Cheyanne the Hein's building is poised to reinvigorate one of the city's central blocks. Developer David Camm envisions six stories of retail and office space like luxury condos on the roof. The added benefit you're going to have your advice Bill is you're going to have all the tech savvy they need here. You have everything I tackle and at 19 20 tablets atmosphere similar redevelopments are wildly successful in Denver and other metropolitan areas. But this is

Wyoming and projects like the Heinz building offer a high stakes litmus test for the state's willingness to embrace a more urban way of life. It's a gamble. It's part of the developers radiances up hands down. It takes a lot of enthusiasm. There's a lot of potential. People don't believe you at first and it just takes a lot of work and a lot of optimism. So it's not just going to be starting in the building you have to go and learn the building. You know just walking through that all the doors open doors windows and trim are all metal. And again if you would like would I look at a lot of vacant buildings and look at a lot of properties. It took me three floors. There was no building in that building. And.

Casting out a specialty store. It up again. Don't know what to do. So you don't want solutions and come up with to keep the integrity of the building to build a great product out there. So any restoration in store for. Not the unhealthiest most of building. No it is probably easier saving the old buildings lots of times is more expensive. Why do you think it's it's it's it's hard knocks there are people that have dropped space that wasn't successful that people didn't talk to you and think we are great. So you have to kind of know the tricks which are. Diversity and different when you're getting into this space. Cheerful interesting is really an important part of it. There are architects haven't done it since I don't know how to do it.

Finding a good solid developer that knows the secrets of how to create space so that it's attractive to people because that's the whole. Other issue that's kind of a risk as is the market. Is there being a market for my main Wyoming community and I think with the projects that we've seen thus far small scale there has been a. Downturn. Casper's downtown community officially came into its own in

1921 that year Natrona county's property valuation jumped to sixty one million dollars the most in the state. City fathers used the added property tax revenue to build this fire station on David street. The stationhouse state of the art ladder talks which allowed Caspary to construct a large multi-story buildings were all in one big city and we want to be. It was kind of capturing that vision the aspirations of the task. I wanted to be a big city and they wanted this place to be the oil capital. And there were there was just big thinking at the time. The Trona County offered the most dramatic examples of how Wyoming I was beginning to experience a mix of urban and rural lifestyles. The county was home to more sheep than any other place in the state. And in 1921 Casper welcomed the construction of the largest office building ever conceived for the city. The Wyoming National Bank building rose from the corner of Second Street and Woollcott Avenue

announcing to the rest of the world that Caspary. Had arrived. From about the mid teens to the mid 20s. Jasper went from about 3000 people to 30000 people so it was a huge boom and this was the place to be. It was happening for a half a million dollars. They built that building. That was the biggest office building in the state at the time and it had all sorts of offices and professional offices as well as a drug store and a grocery store and a bank and there were barber shops and dentists and. Doctors and lawyers and everybody was and it was just huge you know really put Casper on the map. Well what was this space in here was.

I believe the original bank lobby here. And. There was a cap walked up above on that side of the building that. Represented. The. Guard. Balcony. In the car and walked up and down this 1920s so roaring 20s. And. He said. Tommy guns and whatever. The Wyoming National Bank building remained one of the state's most prominent urban anchors for four decades. But it's grand jury was gradually upstaged. The downtown had become worn out when the malls came I think they

really took away the the shopping. And so that's where downturns always suffer a great deal. You know and I was faced with a choice you know J.C. Penney's where across the street from us and I was faced with that choice of a beggar downtown like everybody else or do I dig my feet and stay here. And I chose to dig my feet you know actually double the space in my store the same year as the mob came in. In an effort to compete with the malls in the 1970s. The Wyoming National Bank building was encased in this facade. It primarily became a pigeon condominium. I do remember I walk over the top of the facade off or cleaning up all the pigeon droppings when they were done with that they told me that they had hauled off 64 tons of pinchy. Wyoming's architectural declaration of true Urbanists had literally gone to the

birds. Well the city of Casper grappled with a giant empty building in the heart of downtown. That's one thing I'll give the city credit for. They did not tear down the wild National Bank building and they had many opportunities to do that. And did the Senate chose to purchase the building just to try and see if they can get anything to happen and really kind of bring back the dynamic. Hark back to downtown. So the city was put out. Anybody anybody would do something with that building. And so Steve GRIMSHAW He was the only one that ever built it because the local contractors just did it again. The numbers didn't work together it was just about impossible to build it and and be able to not lose a ton of money on it. Skip this is Steve Rich over at the White House.

My number is 2 6 7. I'm the sole owner. So I'm the buck starts and stops with me. The building footprint is a hundred foot 500 foot. The. Overall square footage of the building. Now. Apparently over the years people have looked at it. They have. Submitted various proposals to look at doing luxury walks and their fairways. Thoughts about. All. 23 schools and just. A myriad of different ideas throughout the community of what the building could be utilized for. Nobody could ever figure out how to financially make it work. You know money talks and walks so when. I was the only one that really had. The balls. To.

Show secure federal grants to transfer them the six storey Wyoming National Bank building into 45 affordable housing units on the upper floors and commercial space in the old bank lobby. And I want that insulation maximized on that exterior wall. And as he began work in January 2006. Six months later after totally gutting the inside of the building Grimshaw's cell phone rang had a phone call that. The building was on fire. I was like oh no its got into the ball and I didnt want to burn it. And so I came down and. Logged in all fairness the streets closed off. The fire trucks. Set up with their. And. Like what the heck is going on. There was actually a fire and. So. Many gallons of water. There are probably tons of insulation from the roof itself washing through the building and we ended up.

It within about a week's period of time and didn't really skip a beat. For this long. Hallelujah. Everything is the things. Zach needs to be finished and the corner know number one for. Six. Hey James. You're the Mac Daddy of the fire suppression. Do you know that. Unfortunately the fire wasn't the only set back in Grimshaw fell behind schedule. He originally hoped to begin leasing apartments in June 2007 but the summer flew by with Grimshaw in a state of constant motion. Let's go upstairs and check that out. I don't want you to have to stop for nothing.

OK. Very very good. I wonder why. Don't get don't get Western with that. That's a great job. Looking good. Over and. Over and over and over and over and over and over. Do not believe everything. You. Ever. Asked you. I'd say I'm trying to make the economics work. Is usually the main challenge. Is managing a project. Like. This. It. You reap what you sow. And I'm so in about 16 hours a day so. Hopefully I report the Grimshaw's decision to create

affordable housing instead of high end condos made some wonder if the project would actually pay off these loft buildings in Denver do have higher and tenants now lower. And that's so that has me really wondering. I'm hard pressed to believe what I figure the numbers to be that financially but maybe I hope it does for me you know I wasn't sure. I don't know. Well. We'll see. When the chips fall if I do walk out in the black. You know nothing ventured nothing gained. From Cheyanne to Jackson. Other developers are banking on investments in downtown. In addition to the Heinz building Cheyanne could see the old dinin car dealership come back to life as new law. They built this building. In 1927 to accommodate their successful operation selling and servicing cars. It's a

nice opportunity and a cool building relative to downtown because a lot of downtowns that are 100 years old that the buildings are a lot smaller. There are generally 22 to 44 foot wide. This is a much bigger space so it has some cool opportunities because it's big and open. It's kind of eccentric with lions and some architectural touches that are that. If it's well cared for and redeveloped. In a good way I think it certainly would last another hundred years. This family wanted to see if they could get a master plan and get a giant development going that would help Cheyenne's it hasn't happened. But he's working on it. Councilman. Deneen is chasing higher end clients the kind of people would turn to Danny Williams when they want to construct their dream homes in Jackson but now

instead of drafting a rustic mansion with a view of the Tetons Williams is turning this city lot into a mixed use structure featuring Jackson's first true luxury penthouse. The new owners that are purchased the penthouse. Are in their young 70s came from a large house in a golf course subdivision in Teton County. And we're starting to see a group of people now asking for this type of living in two years. A lot of our projects that we have coming up are going to be set up for. All the family houses. Painting houses on the third floor. These mixed use complexes. We have a great demand for employee housing. We have to really bring that type of housing downtown. Which is lacking the available property.

The scarcity of available land in Jackson is pushing development downtown and over Teton Pass into Driggs Idaho and the tiny hamlet of Alto Wyoming. That's not good news for residents who would rather see growth tightly confined within city limits. In places like Lander where homes on the surrounding ridge tops and Cheyanne were new development is transforming the prairie into cul de sacs. More residents are adopting a model of new urbanism. If you love the landscape. Live in town that's the primary benefit of living in an urban area

is efficiency efficient energy use efficient land use. Honestly efficient time use. There's folks that live 20 minutes outside of town. But one of the reasons why I love living in Cheyanne is because my commute time to work is less than 10 minutes and there's not many other places in America where where you can have that option. And so you know living in an urban environment is really an efficient way to live. But. Paired with that efficiency is the idea that in Wyoming you can live close to nothing. Next to nothing. Minutes from nowhere. Is how I like to describe it to some of my friends. Denver. In five minutes I can be out of the city limits out beyond any development and essentially by myself. But if our communities don't start focusing inward. And

start developing more of an urban fashion we're going to end up like the Phoenix area of the Denver metro area. And essentially lose what's unique about Wyoming. Preserving Wyoming's natural beauty can begin by revitalizing the state's urban landscape. Your. Stuff is. As. Is true and you do know what is here. It has its traditions and as long as it can be useful. And. You know have a good appearance and play a positive part in a community I think it could be good. And it's what special and unique to every community not just Kaspar. But we're not competing against all the franchises in the big boxes and you know we're looking like anywhere USA kind of stuff. Well you don't know if you're on Casper or Fort Collins or Timbuktu anymore. The Wyoming National apartments may help change that by inspiring urban development projects across the state. And after two years of

nonstop work Steve Grimshaw can now breathe a sigh of relief. Because it's everybody. It's been a long project. I have been doing 70 80 hours a week every week for the past two years and then prior to that of course was the just putting the project together on paper. And it's part of what I do you know this the affordable housing development is is very very involved. But the benefit to the end user which is the tenants is it's huge. You know when I. When I see the and the happiness on individuals faces that you know can actually afford to live and have very clean sanitary living environment. You know it makes what I do well worth the while. You know this

building could inspire me and the rest of Wyoming to rehab downtown. The building itself is so huge. It's kind of like the capital letter. Starts a sentence and it kind of continues on for the rest of the Block. And it's. It's really a big statement for downtown. When many think about living in Wyoming. This is what they picture.

But more and more Wyoming residents are reconsidering where and how they live. They're looking downtown and here they're finding ways to live in urban lifestyle in the Cowboy State. I mean I looked in the downtown and that made a lot of sense to go back and get these buildings going.