Great American Main Street Award Winner!
In May, we were recognized by National Main Street with a Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA). This highly competitive award celebrated our dedication to growing our local economy, preserving our unique history and building a strong sense of community. This award is a community accomplishment thanks to the hard work and many years of dedication from the Laramie Main Street staff, board, volunteers, and businesses. Learn more about our GAMSA win here: https://laramiemainstreet.org/great-american-main-street-award
Best Practices and Main Street Conference
Also in May a group of 10 Laramie Main Street staff, board members, and volunteers traveled to Virginia to participate in the Wyoming Main Street Best Practices tour (visiting 3 Virginia Main Street Communities to get inspiration and network) and National Main Street’s Main Street Now conference (a national conference of Main Street leaders). We came back with so many ideas and inspiration - thank you to Blue FCU for sponsoring our training! Read more about our volunteer’s experiences at https://laramiemainstreet.org/news
Finished the Apartments at the Empress
In September we finished the 3rd floor apartments in the Empress Building! Built in 2018 as a mixed use, infill project in the heart of downtown Laramie, the space was formerly home to the historic Empress, then Fox Theater, which was demolished due to neglect in 2009. Now the 3rd floor is fully utilized with three brand new 1,000 square foot apartments. Learn more at https://laramiemainstreet.org/theempress
The completion of this building is a testimony to all our current and former board members who had a vision to "fill the hole". We've come a long way since this building came down in 2009. Adding residential units to this space has given Laramie Main Street the hands-on experience to be a collaborator in solving Laramie's housing shortage.
Laradise Lane
This summer we partnered with the City and Laramie Public Art Coalition to create a new and improved outdoor seating area downtown. Volunteers pulled weeds, removed trash and painted walls with left over paint from mural projects. We pooled funds with the City to have the lot leveled and gravel added then outlined the roofs with lights! The Laramie Vision Clinic commissioned local artist, Favian Hernandez to create a mural on their blank wall. We topped it off by adding oversized games for the summer. It's wonderful to see the outdoor spaces downtown grow and evolve.
International Flavor Festival
In the spring we hosted our first International Flavor Fest - a restaurant crawl featuring international inspired dishes. We paired international community members with restaurants who created a special dish for that week inspired by that country. We had 20 downtown restaurants participate who infused a menu item with flavors inspired by over 80 international community members and students from over 40 nations. Save the date for the 2023 International Flavor festival April 4- 8 Learn more at https://laramiemainstreet.org/international-flavor-festival
Wyo Theater Fundraising
We had fun this year fundraising for the historic WYO theater. From the Devine Eats dinner & music fundraiser at the Depot, to WYO Gives Day in July, the Nu2u street party in Sept., to a spooky burlesque show for Halloween and custom WYO popcorn earrings - we made a dent in our fundraising goal. We covered the costs to maintain the building and set aside funds to match grants we will write in 2023. While we’ve still got a L O N G W A Y to go before the building can be re opened, we are deeply grateful to our Team Wyo volunteers and donors for getting us this far. Learn more at https://laramiemainstreet.org/thewyo
Small Business Saturday
We gave away bags with mystery prizes for this year’s small business Saturday and we were amazed by the turn out - we were out of prizes by 9:30 am. And we love seeing everyone using their shop Laramie bags downtown while they support our amazing small businesses. Plus the shopsmalllaramie.com website had 7,678 views this season! Keep up the great work supporting our local businesses - all year and during the holiday season.
Sponsorships
We were thrilled to see an outpouring of support from sponsors this year. We expanded our sponsorship opportunities and the Laramie community really stepped up. Sponsorships help us cover the cost of our downtown events, training and other critical expenses. If you are interested in sponsoring for 2023 contact Taylor at sponsorshop@laramiemainstreet.org Thank you!
Downtown Trees
Early this summer we were able to replace 15 of the trees downtown. Our past trees had suffered some harsh weather and some even outgrew their space in the sidewalk. This left us with 30 trees needing to be replaced. Thanks to Laramie Beautification, Randy the City Arborist, and Tiger Tree we were able to remove stumps and plant 15 new trees better suited for life on the sidewalk. We have plans to continue planting trees this summer.
New Businesses
Every year our Downtown economic ecosystem grows, shifts and changes. This year we saw 10 new businesses open.
• Bella Blu Home Goods & Gifts - 308 S. 3rd Street
• Bejo Dua Sushi & Ramen - 213 Grand Avenue
• Blue Mountain Bookstore - 208 Grand Avenue
• Digital Doctors - 306 S 3rd St
• Wild West Creations - 207 E Grand Avenue
• Fernando's Mexican Grill - 110 Ivinson Avenue
• The Collective Center for Healing Arts - 100 S 2nd St
• Link Innovative Cycling Solutions- 263 N 3rd St
• The Zone - 116 Grand Ave
• WYO LifeStim - 121 Grand Ave Suite 202
As grassroots, community driven economic developers, it brings us great joy to assist new entrepreneurs in establishing their business downtown! Plus we have a new intern, Kim Jessen, who is dedicated to business outreach! So she has been visiting with businesses both brand new or established and will continue in 2023.