David Street Station held its grand opening the week of August 16, 2017, with a large performance stage, a synthetic turf lawn and vendor areas, and phase two planned a splash pad, an ice rink and a maintenance building. The plaza sits on the edge of the Old Yellowstone District, and it changed the question for nearby owners. The question became how much of the block could carry housing, shops and offices that face a public space people already use.
Mixed-use construction answers that question with one building holding more than one occupancy. Ground-floor retail or restaurant space sits under apartments or offices, and every layer has different fire ratings, different mechanical needs and a different owner or lender. It is harder than a single-use building and it only pays when the program is realistic for a market this size.
We say that plainly. Casper does not support the density of a larger city, and a four-story block with thin ground-floor demand turns into a financing problem. What works is a modest building on a good corner, with retail space that suits actual local tenants and housing above it that stands on its own rent. We price that building honestly, starting with the multifamily and mixed-use format.
The first design decision in a mixed-use building is the separation between uses. Residential floors over commercial space require rated assemblies between them, separate fire alarm zones and often separate mechanical systems. Sound transmission through the floor matters as much as fire: a restaurant exhaust fan under a bedroom is a lawsuit with a lease attached. We bring this up in the first coordination meeting because it changes the structure.
The second decision is the structural system. Wood-frame residential floors can sit on a concrete or steel podium, which is the shape that podium and wrap construction describes, or an entire building can use one framing system if the program is small. We compare both in preconstruction and report what each does to schedule, cost and insurance. Our apartment construction experience carries into the upper floors.
Mixed-use jobs have many trades in a small footprint, and the fastest way to protect the schedule is to control the trades that gate everyone else. We schedule selected concrete and carpentry work where it makes the sequence tighter, and we manage temporary protection, winter enclosure and daily site cleanup. When the first-floor slab is poured and the second-floor deck is framed, the other trades need to walk in without waiting.
Blocking and backing are the quiet items. Retail tenants hang heavy signs and shelving, apartments need grab bars and cabinets, and both are far cheaper to place in the wall during framing than to fix later. We draw those locations with the architect and keep a record, so the tenant improvement crew finds solid wood where the plan says it will be.
The Old Yellowstone District is the city's urban renewal redevelopment area, run under the 2002 Casper Urban Renewal Plan, a 2007 Redevelopment Master Plan, a 2016 update and a form-based code (OYDSPC zoning). A mixed-use building inside the district, which borders the downtown core, must satisfy the form-based code, not just the building code, so the shape of the ground floor and the relationship to the street are regulated. We read it before we draw.
Southwest of downtown, Platte River Commons runs along the North Platte and includes the Casper Whitewater Park, a half-mile stretch of river with four artificial rock structures, and the Platte River Trail, about ten miles of paved pathway. That is the other place mixed-use demand points. The land, however, is the former Amoco refinery site, and it is still recovering from contamination. Any building there starts with an environmental review and a soil management plan.
Mixed-use buildings cost more per square foot than single-use buildings of the same size, and the gap comes from fire separation, elevators, dual mechanical systems and the structural transfer between floors. The ground floor drives the budget. Restaurant space needs grease handling, ventilation shafts and heavy electrical service, and retail needs storefront, accessibility and flexible demising. Apartments above need acoustic treatment and individual utility metering.
We also price what the owner sometimes forgets: construction staging on a tight downtown lot, street closures, crane or lift access, and the cost of keeping a neighboring business open. For owners who develop and hold, multifamily developers usually need those numbers before they approach a lender, and we give them in a form a lender's inspector can read.
Send us the parcel and what you expect to charge for the space. We will tell you what the building costs to put up, and whether the two numbers meet.
It can, if the ground floor has real tenants and the upper floors carry their own rent. The risk is a building that depends on retail income the market will not pay. We build cost models with and without the retail tenants committed, so you see the downside before you borrow. A smaller building on a strong corner often works where a larger one does not.
They do. The district has its own form-based code, and the city's urban renewal plans govern frontage, building form and use. On top of that, commercial permits often require a life-safety plan, engineered drawings and Planning/Zoning approval. We coordinate the sequence so district review, zoning and plan review do not stall each other.
Through assemblies and layout. We use rated floor-ceiling systems with sound insulation, isolate mechanical equipment, and keep kitchen exhaust shafts away from bedrooms. These decisions are cheapest at schematic design. We review them with the architect before the structure is set, because fixing them after the framing is up is slow and expensive.
It is being redeveloped in pieces, and parts of it already hold a business center, a golf course and park space. The site is still recovering from contamination under a 2002 remedy agreement. Any building there needs an environmental review, geotechnical work and a plan for soil and groundwater handling before we can give you a reliable number.
We plan the site first: where deliveries stage, where the crane sits, how trucks turn and how pedestrians pass. We coordinate street and sidewalk closures with the city well ahead of time. Concrete and structure come first, enclosure follows, and tenant spaces finish in the order the leases demand. Winter protection is built into the plan.