Bar Nunn grew about 35 percent between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, from 2,213 residents to 2,981, and Mills went from 3,461 to 4,034. Evansville added about 200 people over the same stretch. Growing bedroom towns need plumbers, electricians, equipment dealers and parts suppliers close by, and that demand is behind most of the flex space we build: a front office, a rear shop with an overhead door, a yard, and a lease that works for a small operator.
Flex is the building type that sits between a warehouse and an office. The frame is usually steel, the walls are insulated metal or masonry, and the floor is a heavy slab that can take a pickup, a forklift or a work truck. Tenants are contractors, oilfield service vendors, equipment repair shops, light fabricators and storage operators. Because they change over time, we design the bays so a wall can move and a door can be added without tearing out the structure.
We build flex buildings as single-tenant owner-occupied shops and as multi-bay rows for investors. Much of the shell comes from our pre-engineered metal buildings practice, and the bays are finished through our tenant improvements work. For the owner view of the product, see our flex and light industrial page.
We start with the smallest tenant and the biggest tenant. A 2,500 square foot bay for an electrician and a 10,000 square foot bay for an equipment dealer have different clear heights, door sizes and parking needs, and the building has to serve both. We lay out a bay module, test it with real vehicles, and then multiply it.
The next questions are utilities and yard space. Each bay should have its own power meter, a water and sewer stub, a restroom and a place to park trailers. Oilfield and construction tenants often need outdoor storage, and a lot that has no room for it is a lot that leases slowly. We lay out circulation for a tractor-trailer turn before we fix the building footprint.
The simplest is a single-bay shop with a small office. The next is a row of five or six condominium-style bays with separate entries. Beyond that are small business parks with several buildings, shared drive aisles and common detention. Each requires slightly different fire separation and utility planning.
Some owners combine flex with other uses. A front showroom with a rear warehouse suits a distributor, and a small mini-warehouse row on the back of the lot can fund the project. Our self-storage facility work shares the same site prep, and we can phase both together so one set of utilities serves them. The storage row is usually the cheapest square foot on the lot, and it keeps the project cash flowing while the larger flex bays find tenants.
Multi-tenant bays need rated demising walls, fire sprinklers sized for the occupancy, and egress that works for each tenant. The City of Casper lists the 2024 International Codes with amendments in Title 15 of its municipal code, and commercial permits there often require a life-safety plan and engineered drawings. The occupancy classification affects how we separate bays, so we decide it with the building official, not after.
The towns each run their own show. Mills lists a Building and Inspections department, Planning and Zoning, and a Public Works department with a water treatment facility, and Bar Nunn operates as its own incorporated town. Because Wyoming has no single statewide building code, we confirm which codes and design loads each jurisdiction enforces before we price.
The big items are the slab, the steel and the utility extension. Frost depth below the 3 foot line, soil conditions and drainage often decide the slab cost. Clear height, door count, insulation and mechanical systems then set the building cost. Sitework can be the largest swing: a lot that needs fill, a long sewer extension or a detention pond can add more than the building itself.
We look for ways to trade up front cost for operating cost. A taller bay leases to more tenants but costs more to heat. A larger yard costs less than building area but helps rent. We lay out these trade-offs in our estimate so the owner sees what each decision does to the pro forma, and our property management clients use the same numbers to plan operating budgets.
Bar Nunn is a good example of the site conditions in the metro. The town was built around the runways of Wardwell Field, Casper's original airport, and the old runways now form its street pattern. A parcel there may have existing pavement, utilities and drainage that change the sitework scope, so we survey before we commit. That is the first thing we check on any lot in Bar Nunn.
Mills sits at 5,125 feet in the Casper metropolitan area and has franchise agreements with several telecom providers to build fiber networks, which matters to a tenant who runs on connectivity, so Mills lots get a fiber question early. We also take work along the Highway 20-26 corridor through Evansville and east Casper, where truck access and existing industrial neighbors make flex parcels easier to lease.
Send us the parcel, the bay sizes you have in mind and who you expect to lease or occupy. We will return a layout, a budget with the sitework separated out and a phased schedule.
It depends on the tenant you expect. Contractors and small shops often look for 2,500 to 5,000 square feet, while equipment dealers and light fabricators want more. We recommend a module you can combine, so two bays can become one when a larger tenant arrives.
Yes, if the zoning allows it and the lender agrees. The demising walls, utilities and legal descriptions have to be set up from the start, so we coordinate with your attorney and the building department before design is final.
Once the site is ready and permits are issued, the shell goes up in months, not years. The schedule depends on steel delivery, the weather window for the slab and the utility extension. We provide a written schedule with the proposal and update it as submittals clear.
Not necessarily. We often phase the project so the first two or three bays lease before the rest are built. The utilities and sitework for later phases can be stubbed so you do not rip out finished work.
We schedule the slab and concrete work for the warmer months where we can, enclose the building before the hard freeze and plan heated enclosures when we cannot. Casper's climatic criteria include a 3 foot frost line and severe weathering, and our estimate includes cold-weather protection when the schedule requires it.