City of Laramie Staff requested a work session with City Council on April 24th, 2024 to discuss the potential cancellation of a lease agreement between the City of Laramie and property owners of the parking lot in Downtown Laramie at First and Garfield.

The parking lot is also known as the “Trout Lot” or the Landmark Square Parking Lot and during the work session was also referred to as the “Bolton Lot” based on the name of one of the property owners.

Cancellation of the lease agreement would clear the way for a proposed re-development project on the property.

About the parking lot

• The property is currently zoned Downtown Commercial
• A lease agreement was established between the City of Laramie and the property owners in 1994
• The lease agreement was amended in 1997 and again in 2008 to revise the amount of public and private parking available in the lot as well as the establishment of the First Street Plaza
• The lot currently offers 76 parking spaces and per the lease agreement up to 35 of those spaces could be converted into rented private spaces. Currently only 6 spaces are marked as private.
• The lease agreement requires 50% of the parking to be kept for public use. Additionally, the City of Laramie is responsible for maintenance of the parking lot including striping, snow removal, and landscaping maintenance.
• The lease agreement will automatically terminate 50 years from January 31, 1992
• According to County Assessor Records the parking lot property is currently owned by John & Jodi Guerin and Bolt LLC

About the proposed development.

• The Stencil Group is proposing a high density infill residential development
• The proposed building would be 5 stories with ground floor parking
• The proposed building would have 66 paid parking spaces for residents
• The proposed building would include 88 residential units made up of studio, 1 bed, and 2 bed apartments with 75% of the units being studio and 1 bedroom
• The developer projects that the building would house 150-160 full-time residents
• According to the developer, the majority of units in the building would be on the higher end for the community in terms of rental rates
• The goal is to start the project by the end of the year
• The developer plans to request Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for the project

What happens next

• In order for the proposed development to move forward both the current property owners and the City of Laramie would have to mutually agree to terminate the current lease agreement for the parking lot.
• The decision to terminate or keep the lease will only have one vote by the City Council on May 7th at the regular meeting.
• If the lease is terminated by City Council then the proposed development would be able to move forward through normal development processes following current city ordinances.