Laramie, WY (May 16, 2022) – Main Street America announced today that Laramie Main Street Alliance (LMSA) in Laramie, Wyoming has received the prestigious Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA), which recognizes communities for their excellence in comprehensive preservation-based commercial district revitalization. Selected by a national jury of community development professionals and leaders in the fields of economic development and historic preservation, Laramie Main Street Alliance is being recognized for driving local economic development and historic preservation through effective grassroots community building and creative placemaking activities.
“Laramie’s creative and thoughtful approach to development has been inspiring to witness.”
“Laramie’s creative and thoughtful approach to development has been inspiring to witness,” said Main Street America President and CEO, Patrice Frey. “Their longstanding commitment to economic vitality and community-driven change ensure a promising future for the historic city.”
Sitting along the Union Pacific Railroad Line, Laramie is Wyoming’s only university town. In the 1980s, a group of concerned business and property owners adopted and implemented aspects of The Main Street Approach. Unfortunately, this early work lacked coordination among the various downtown groups until 2005, when Laramie Main Street Alliance was founded and joined the Wyoming Main Street program. Over the span of the following 17 years, and in partnership with the city, LMSA’s revitalization efforts have created a climate that has resulted in more than $21 million in public and private investment, 398 private rehabilitation projects, and the creation of 148 net new businesses and 689 net new jobs.
“Laramie Main Street Alliance has shown that it takes perseverance, support from all areas of the community, and tireless work from volunteers and staff to make downtown thrive,” said Kayla Kler, Main Street Program Manager at the Wyoming Business Council. “For Laramie to serve as a leader in downtown accessibility and entrepreneurship is incredibly encouraging for the future of our Wyoming communities.”
Laramie Main Street Alliance’s success is credited to the organization’s strong culture of lifelong learning, service, and community connection. One example of this ethos in action is evident in LMSA’s volunteer program, which is guided by a desire to facilitate mutually beneficial opportunities that support the organization’s transformation strategies while allowing volunteers to achieve personal goals. As a result, LMSA volunteers—from board members to University of Wyoming students—have logged 59,024 hours of service valued at over $1.2 million since 2005. The return on investment of the LMSA volunteer program also includes robust intern and mentee programs, whose participants remain engaged and successfully contribute to the community as graduate students, employees at local businesses, and as entrepreneurs themselves.
Groundbreaking of the Empress Building.
The development of the Empress is perhaps Laramie’s proudest achievement to date. Completed in 2018, this mixed-use retail and residential building replaced a large vacant lot in the center of downtown with Big Hollow Food Co-Op, a locally owned grocery store. In addition to being the first infill project of its kind in downtown Laramie, the project is on the vanguard of the community’s efforts to increase access to fresh produce and affordable housing.
LMSA is poised and ready for their next large infrastructure investment, a streetscape project called “3,2,1… Third Street!” that will remove the biggest barrier to downtown revitalization by enhancing the eight blocks of US Highway 287 that runs through the district. When complete in 2026, the businesses, residents, and visitors will benefit from a pedestrian-friendly Third Street that features public art, new lighting, improved wayfinding, and ADA-upgrades.
“We intend to leverage our GAMSA win to engage a broader audience in the Main Street movement and cultivate new customers for our businesses. We share this recognition with our partners, donors and volunteers who have invested in downtown’s beautification, preservation, economic and social vitality.”
The next phase of transformation will build upon LMSA’s successful collaboration-based strategies, such as the Laramie Mural Project, which has facilitated 27 mural installations, and the Cowboy Cash program, a pandemic-response initiative that offered University of Wyoming students gifts certificates for downtown businesses and injected $40,000 into the local economy.
“We are thrilled that our work is being celebrated at a national level,” said Trey Sherwood, Director at Laramie Main Street Alliance. “We intend to leverage our GAMSA win to engage a broader audience in the Main Street movement and cultivate new customers for our businesses. We share this recognition with our partners, donors and volunteers who have invested in downtown’s beautification, preservation, economic and social vitality.”
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ABOUT THE GREAT AMERICAN MAIN STREET AWARDS
The Great American Main Street Award program recognizes communities exemplifying the use of the Main Street Approach™ to revitalize commercial districts. Winners are selected from a nationwide pool of applicants by a jury of Main Street professionals and leaders in the fields of community and economic development and historic preservation. Since the award’s inception in 1995, over 100 Main Street programs have been honored as GAMSA communities. For more information, visit mainstreet.org.
ABOUT MAIN STREET AMERICA
Main Street America leads a movement committed to strengthening communities through preservation-based economic development in older and historic downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts. For more than 40 years, Main Street America has provided a practical, adaptable, and impactful framework for community-driven, comprehensive revitalization through the Main Street Approach™. Our network of more than 1,200 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Main Street America is a nonprofit subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For more information, visit mainstreet.org.
ABOUT LARAMIE MAIN STREET ALLIANCE
Laramie Main Street Alliance strives to preserve historic Downtown Laramie while enhancing its economic and social vitality through the implementation of transformation strategies that preserve the district as a home for entrepreneurs, with a focus on authentic consumer experiences and creative third spaces. Laramie Main Street Alliance is a member of the Wyoming Main Street Program. For more information, visit laramiemainstreet.org.