Wyoming Business: Site selector endorses Cheyenne biz climate

CHEYENNE — After touring Cheyenne and seeing the progress being made, a New Jersey consulting site selector liked what he saw.

And Ron Ruberg predicted other site selectors will like the view, too, now that Cheyenne is finally emerging as a destination that companies interested in relocating or expanding should look at.

“You’ve come over the horizon on these undulating hills you have,” Ruberg told Cheyenne LEADS members. “Now we can see Cheyenne, because there’s been enough activity.”

With the new Lowe’s distribution center taking shape, other firms will notice, said Ruberg, a partner in Location Advisory Services and the featured speaker at the annual meeting of LEADS, Cheyenne and Laramie County’s economic-development corporation.

“You’re up on the radar screen of consultants now,” he said. “There will be a lot of other companies that formerly would have bypassed Cheyenne, they’ll look and say, ‘Whoa, Lowe’s is going there, maybe we ought to take a look. Why did they go there and we never even looked at them before?’

“And that will happen,” he added. “It’s the kind of thing that starts a trend. The fact that you can give what companies want — namely ready-made land, putting infrastructure in in advance. Not many communities have done it to the extent you have.”

Ruberg also said the fact that Cheyenne is rebuilding Capitol Avenue and renovating its historic depot are good signs for visitors.

“These are the kind of things that say to a client, ‘The business climate must be pretty good there, they’re taking care of their own, and they’re taking care of their city.”

It also demonstrates “the first cardinal rule in this business” and one of Cheyenne’s greatest strengths — that “a business climate that fosters internal growth also attracts newcomers to the area.”

Still, Ruberg warned LEADS members that just being on the radar screen doesn’t guarantee success in the economic-development game, and he offered several suggestions on how LEADS can be even more successful.

Among his caveats: Continuing emphasis of Wyoming’s low cost of doing business, including low taxes as well as low land, utility and regulatory costs.

“It still take work to land (prospects),” he emphasized. “There are a lot of competitors out there that are good and know what they are doing, just like you do.”

LEADS job list grows

CHEYENNE — Cheyenne LEADS is continuing to grow primary jobs in Cheyenne and Laramie County, according to Randy Bruns, Cheyenne LEADS’ new president.

The past year has brought expansions of Grobet File Co. of America Inc., Mountain Regional Services Inc. and Aspen Leaf Inc. market research. Construction starts of Lowe’s Cos. regional distribution center — and soon Van Diest Supply Co. — will add to the total, Bruns told LEADS members at the corporation’s annual meeting over the Easter weekend

“So it’s been a good year,” Bruns said. “We’re building on the announcements of prior years, and are positioned, I think, as well as we’ve ever been.”

Currently, LEADS has helped develop about 1,500 primary jobs in the Cheyenne area and is on track to grow that total to 2,100 by next March, a $57 million annual payroll.

Those jobs will create anywhere from 2,000 to nearly 4,000 secondary jobs, Bruns said.

Grobet moves headquarters

CHEYENNE — Grobet File Co. of America Inc. is moving its world headquarters for manufacturing and research and development to Cheyenne.

The move will bring 10 to 15 new jobs initially but could eventually mean an additional 50 to 70 jobs at Grobet’s new site in the Cheyenne Business Parkway.

Cheyenne mayor, Jack Spiker, called the expansion more good news for Cheyenne’s diversifying economy and said it won’t hurt having a Cheyenne address on Grobet’s manufacturing and research division letterheads.

Grobet is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of precision industrial tools and the world’s leading manufacturer of precision jewelry tools, with operations in Switzerland, Canada and the Dominican Republic, as well as New Jersey, Georgia and Wyoming in the United States. Company executive offices will remain in New Jersey.

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