The Town of Lovell and the Lovell Inc. economic development organization received good news Thursday when the State Loan and Development Board approved a Business Ready Community grant to renovate the Lovell Business Incubator Facility, which also houses the Lovell Inc. offices.
Meeting in Cheyenne Jan. 28, the SLIB approved more than $14.5 million in Business Ready Community grant applications and more than $5.6 million in Community Facilities grant applications.
Both programs are administered by the Wyoming Business Council, which in December recommended approval of the Lovell Business Ready Community grant application.
Lovell was awarded $330,598 for the business incubator facility, with the grant package including an in-kind match of $75,245 from the purchase of the building and work already performed on the facility.
Lovell Inc. Director Sue Taylor attended the SLIB meeting Thursday morning at the Herschler Building in Cheyenne, noting that there were around 100 people in the audience to explain or advocate for their projects before the state’s top five elected officials.
Business Ready Community grants were first on the agenda, and Lovell’s project was on the consent list. The SLIB voted to approve the consent list, Taylor said, but then voted to remove a Laramie project – a pedestrian overpass – from the list, saying that the project would be more appropriate for Wyoming Dept. of Transportation funding.
SLIB then substituted and partially funded a Laramie child care and early child education project, Taylor said. That project had not been on the WBC’s recommended list.
“I stuck around throughout the process to make sure we were not pulled from the consent list,” Taylor noted.
The project
The Lovell project consists of renovating the current Lovell Inc. building at 142 E. Third St. in Lovell, which houses the Lovell Inc. office and has three spaces available for lease to start-up companies. The building is owned by the Town of Lovell and managed by Lovell Inc.
The grant will pay for exterior and interior upgrades, Taylor said. Exterior work will include a new roof, insulated windows, signage and an ADA compliant sidewalk and entry doors.
Interior work would include remodeling the conference room, Lovell Inc. office space and three tenant spaces, upgrading to the electrical, heating, air conditioning and telecommunications systems and building ADA compliant restrooms. The grant also covers an asbestos inspection and abatement, if needed.
According to the project proposal, an incubator in Lovell would provide a space for small local businesses, entrepreneurs and start-ups to pay lower rent while gaining the necessary business expertise to become successful. The proposed project “has the potential to create new jobs and grow local businesses,” the proposal states, adding, “Ideally, businesses would graduate from the incubator to locate in other areas of town.”
Now that the SLIB has approved the grant, the WBC staff will draft a grant agreement, which must be reviewed by the attorney general’s office, then approved by the Town of Lovell and signed by Mayor Bruce Morrison. The process could take four to six weeks, Taylor said.
While the town cannot enter into any formal contracts during this time, Lovell Inc. can issue requests for proposals for the work, Taylor said, and once the grant agreement is fully executed, the process of awarding bids can be done.
She said Lovell Inc. will likely issue two RFPs: one for the construction and renovation and another for the asbestos inspection. Work should be under way this summer and completed before Nov. 1, Taylor said.