Cheyenne crossroads about to get busier

CHEYENNE – One of the West’s major crossroads – the interchange of Interstates 25 and 80 in Cheyenne – is about to get busier. And most in Cheyenne see that as a good thing.
Building on Cheyenne’s history as a transportation hub, Cheyenne LEADS is developing a new business park just west of the I-25/I-80 juncture to continue expanding the community’s economy with additional distribution or light-manufacturing jobs.
“We see transportation continuing to play a large role in Cheyenne’s and Laramie County’s economy, primarily because of the happy circumstance that I-25 and I-80 cross here,´ said Randy Bruns. president of Cheyenne LEADS, the private economic-development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County
“We are what we are due in large part to transportation,” Bruns added. “Whether it’s the Oregon Trail or the Union Pacific Railroad or the interstate highway system, it really defines everything in our state and how we relate to all the other states.”
As the northern anchor of the fast-growing Northern Front Range economy, Cheyenne’s I-25/I-80 junction also is taking on increasing importance in the regional transportation system, Bruns said.
“I-80 may be the nation’s premier transcontinental interstate,” he said, while “I-25 is the spine of the Front Range economic zone stretching from Pueblo to Cheyenne.”
Sounds like the perfect place to put a business park, and not surprisingly, LEADS executives and board members having been eyeing the property’s potential for years.

New industrial park
The planned new $5.5 million West Industrial Park is located not quite two miles west of I-25. It is bounded by I-80 on the south and Happy Jack Road (Wyoming Highway 210) on the north and stretching from North Fort Access Road (Wyoming Highway 222) west one mile. The 612-acre site currently is grazing land.
“It’s just a marvelous location, immediately west of I-25,” Bruns said. “It gives us interstate visibility but more critically, it gives us (almost) immediate interstate access.”
The Wyoming Department of Transportation has plans to complete an interchange at Fort Access Road and I-80, less than two miles from I-25. The I-80 bridges have long been in place, but on and off ramps were never constructed because there was no need, Bruns said. WYDOT engineers are designing those ramps.
The I-25/I-80 interchange is a classic cloverleaf that has been difficult to develop because of adjacent wetlands and the Union Pacific Railroad, so most of the development has occurred immediately north or south of the interchange. This will be the first major development to the west.
LEADS still has about 300 acres available at its first business park, the Cheyenne Business Parkway, located off I-80 about five miles east of I-25. But when the new Lowe’s distribution center took up a 300-acre chunk of the 900-acre business park, LEADS began looking for additional land that could accommodate another large facility.
“We’ve actually looked at this property for years, but it never really was available,” Bruns said. “We were interested in the property because it met all our needs, and there isn’t really much around that does.”
Two years ago, while courting another large distribution center, LEADS learned that a portion of the Fort Access Road site might be available. The distributor subsequently put its expansion plans on hold, but LEADS didn’t put its hopes on hold.
“Even after that project went on hold, we kept working to acquire the entire parcel,” Bruns said, adding that the LEADS board “was interested in the entire parcel, not just a portion.”
“It’s a lot of work to bring a small portion online, and while we did have an immediate need, it would be a lot more efficient for the community and LEADS if we could put that energy into a parcel that would serve us well into the future rather than just for one or two projects.”

Foot in the door
“We originally got our foot in the door because of a very specific need for a very specific customer,” he added. “Even if that customer put their project on hold, we continued because we said, ‘If not this customer, then sooner or later another one.'”
Two years ago, part of the site was to have been a subdivision, but those plans stalled when a city annexation of the property was deemed to be illegal.
There was also litigation involving the city, county and developer, but LEADS was not a party to the legal proceedings and now owns the entire property without any impediments, Bruns said.

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