Cheyenne’s Historic Downtown Bell Building Was Boarded Up, Now It’s Becoming A Showpiece

CHEYENNE — Pigeons, rain and decades of neglect create negative momentum in the lifespan of a historic building, a momentum that can be all but impossible to reverse. 

But the Bell Building at 1605 Central Ave., which began life in 1911 as a Buick dealership and fell on hard times in the 1980s, is going to get a second chance at life after all.

Amy Surdam, a former Downtown Development Association director for Cheyenne, is stepping up to take on the challenge of resurrecting the building, and has already accomplished a major cosmetic facelift for its facade.

“I’ve always had an interest in that building and other unoccupied downtown buildings,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “Because I just believe downtown is the heart of every community.”

Getting Cheyenne’s downtown to function is a mission that has already attracted more than one champion. 

“Everyone’s doing a great job with the projects that they’ve taken on,” she said. “Like Corey (Lynn) with the Downtowner, that’s been fantastic. 

"And Astrid tries really hard with the Plains, and (Renee and Jon) Jelinek with The Lincoln. So, it just takes, every project, every building, it takes one person who says, ‘I’m going to own this.’”

The Bell Building, Surdam has decided, is the project she wants to own. 

Her vision for the Bell is a mixed-use business that includes a smaller retail space for starter businesses, as well as six to seven apartments, and then 32 additional parking spaces. 

Parking has been especially tight at the location near the busy intersection of Central Avenue and Lincolnway, Surdam said. Perhaps among the tightest in the downtown area, according to the studies she’s seen.

“Additional parking would really help out our buildings,” she said. “It would help out the venues. It would help decompress the block and give it some more immediate turnover."

The Math Of Restoration

It’s not the first time a champion has tried to take on the Bell Building. 

Robert Slaughter with the nonprofit Preserve Historic Wyoming received a $408,000 grant in 2019 to abate several hazardous conditions in the building, said Charles Bloom, Cheyenne's planning and development director.

The money went toward a new roof to stop water leaking into the structure, according to records on file with Bloom and the city.

“(Water) was actually moving contaminants throughout the building,” Bloom said. “And it was actually spreading it, potentially, to other properties.”

Fixing the roof was a crucial first step in saving the building, Bloom added.

“Once you lose a roof, then you’re going to have major issues with the structure, because the elements are going to get in,” Bloom said.

Slaughter's initial plan had been to do some ground-floor parking and luxury apartments, but other issues came up as his work progressed, Bloom said. 

“He had some issues that had presented itself which required him to, like, sell the building,” Bloom said. “He couldn’t finish the project.”

Mayor Patrick Collins told Cowboy State Daily those kinds of issues aren’t uncommon when it comes to saving a historic landmark like the Bell Building. 

There are often unforeseen issues that such buildings have, and the costs of solving them can quickly outrun the math of restoring them.

“I think the challenge that we always have with adapting these old buildings is just the cost to do that and try to find a use for the building that can pay for itself,” he said. “You don’t want to spend millions of dollars on something and then the rent can’t make the payments.”

That’s a challenge that’s held back other restoration projects, Collins said. 

“It just takes a lot of resources to overcome the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act),” he said. “And you think about buildings built in the 1800s and early 1900s, there’s no such thing as internet and air conditioning — all those modern utilities that we have — and trying to incorporate those into buildings that weren’t designed for them is a real challenge.”

The Fourth Floor Has To Go

The Bell Building began life in 1911 as a Buick car dealership and, in its day, was one of a growing city’s most impressive structures.

“There used to be an elevator in the building, and they would put the cars on the elevator and move them up to the second and third floors and display the cars in those big, beautiful windows,” Surdam said. 

After the dealership closed, there was a period of time where it became a parking garage for the Plains Hotel across the street. 

Then sometime in the 1940s, John Bell bought the building and gave it its current name, and it served as office space.

“In the 1950s, someone elevated the roof, lifted it higher and made a fourth floor,” Surdam said. “But that fourth floor is not structurally sound, so it has to be removed.”

That structural problem could have been a contributing factor in Slaughter’s decision to back out of his project and sell the building.

Surdam will leave the roof where it is, giving the third floor an unusually high ceiling.

“It was office space for quite a while,” Surdam said. “And I think it went dark in the 1980s. I’m not exactly sure when, but I think it was in the 1980s, and it’s been unoccupied ever since.”

When Surdam toured the building, water was still somehow finding its way into the building despite the roof work accomplished by previous owners, she said. 

“There were pigeons coming in, vandals coming in,” she said. “So that’s why, instead of waiting to do the windows and this door and do the project all at once, we were, like, we’ve got to seal the building and the facade and the windows and the storefront right now.”

That work was accomplished last summer, in part thanks to $50,000 grants from the Downtown Development Association and the Cheyenne-Laramie County Joint Powers Board, Surdam said, while she and her partners kicked in $400,000.

Project Couldn’t Happen Without TIF, Tax Credits

Surdam is confident she’ll have no problem renting out the residential component of her development, once it’s ready.

“We have a low, low vacancy rate in Cheyenne,” she said. “And I believe in the downtown, and I’ve seen the value of having residential there.”

The parking portion of her plan is the part she feels is riskier. 

“But I think the need is there,” she said. “It will really come down to marketing and user adoption. But I think the need is there, and I do think it’s a good investment.”

She also knows demand exists for smaller, more affordable retail spaces downtown.

However, none of the ideas suffice in and of themselves to make the project pencil out.

“So, like historic tax credits or this tax increment financing (TIF), without these kinds of programs, we would not be able to develop this building,” Surdam said. “It would not be financially achievable.”

Cheyenne City Council’s Monday resolution to approve Surdam’s urban renewal project for the building was crucial to finishing the project.

“Having that yes vote ... was a huge victory for the community,” she said. “Now we’ll be able to keep moving forward with the project, whereas if we didn’t have gap financing such as TIF funding, not only would we not be able to do it, but I doubt anyone else would be able to either.”

Solving A Chicken-Egg Problem

The difficulty with saving abandoned historic structures like the Bell Building and the Hitching Post, another Cheyenne landmark, lies in simple math. 

The cost of saving them often outruns the revenue those projects can generate, making them hard to get off the ground. 

But once they do, the value of having them in the community, instead of being an eyesore that’s slowly but surely giving way to the elements, is immediately evident. 

Tax increment financing, more commonly referred to as TIF, tries to solve the conundrum by pledging future tax revenue that will be generated by a particular development in a blighted area to infrastructure that can help get the project off the ground in the first place. 

Existing tax revenues from the area are still paid to the entities that expect to receive them, so there’s no actual tax revenue loss to any of the governmental agencies. 

“The money that we’re currently getting, we still get,” Collins said. “It’s the future dollars that come from the improvements that we use to fund these projects, or help fund these projects, and at the end we'll get the bigger basis.”

In that way, it’s a short-term pain for a long-term gain. 

Those future tax revenues have a time span of usually 15 to 20 years, which is used to pay off the bonds that made the project possible at all.

Hitching Post Example

Cheyenne has not completed many TIF projects yet, but the Hitching Post, which served as Cheyenne’s unofficial second capitol, was a notable one. 

Its burned-out shell sat vacant for years, attracting homeless people who started fires on the property, trying to keep warm. But no one could make a revival of it pencil out. 

“We had all those polluted buildings there, filled with asbestos and lead and all sorts of different problems,” Collins said. “And when developers looked at that site, it was a great site, but it was going to be a couple million to tear those buildings down before you could even start to build.”

A TIF helped defray that expense, making the project feasible. 

Now a new hotel has taken its place. Even though the city is not yet receiving increased tax revenue from the facility, Collins feels it’s already a win.

“There were no jobs there, and now there are,” Collins said. “There was no sales tax getting collected, no other sales and lodging taxes getting collected. 

"So, it’s taking a piece of property that’s sitting there doing nothing — other than growing weeds and having homeless people and transients lighting fires and burning buildings — to a productive piece of property that’s giving back to the community we live in.”

Collins believes TIFs can probably be used, albeit sparingly, to change the future of other problem locations in Cheyenne, like a hole behind the Hynds Building, as well as the Bell Building. 

“It’s a positive way to get rid of blight in your community,” Collins said. “And I would say an old building downtown that’s ready to fall down, I would consider to be a very blighted situation. 

“So, I'm excited that we’re going to be able to hopefully bring (the Bell) building back to life.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.