CHEYENNE, Wyoming (December 30, 2010) – Midwestern Wyoming, Inc., an oil and gas pipeline service company, is the first company in Swan Ranch Rail Park to break ground. Construction has begun for their 60,000 square foot pipe-coating plant and a 17,000 square foot fabrication shop and office building. The company will also install a 2,000 foot rail spur for handling rail car shipments. The fabrication shop and offices are slated for completion in spring of 2011. The pipe-coating building should be complete in fall of 2011 and operations are scheduled to begin in late 2011.
Midwestern announced in 2009 that they would be expanding to Cheyenne. According to vice president Jack Dubois, the company searched potential sites in several states for over a year to find and establish a suitable site before deciding on Swan Ranch Rail Park. “Cheyenne LEADS played a vital role in our location,” stated Dubois. Other factors were Wyoming’s business friendly environment, availability of skilled workforce and the sales/use tax exemption for manufacturing equipment. Wyoming and 35 other states have such a sales/use tax exemption for manufacturing machinery, but the Wyoming exemption will expire this year if not extended.
Cheyenne LEADS worked directly with BNSF railroad to further rail access for Midwestern and other companies who would otherwise be unable to locate their businesses here. Swan Ranch Rail Park is a 550 acre industrial rail park within Granite Peak Development’s 7,200 acres just south of the I-25/I-80 interchange. Dubois explained, “Swan Ranch Rail Park is ideal for our operation with excellent highway access, rail service by both BNSF and UP and other vital infrastructures.” Midwestern has 55 acres within the industrial park for their new facility. Local company Redco Construction is the general contractor and AVI PC of Cheyenne is providing engineering services.
Midwestern expects to hire 25-35 manufacturing jobs such as welders/fabricators, equipment operators and skilled laborers. They specialize in double joint welding of steel pipe, application of anti-corrosion coatings to both the internal and external surfaces of steel pipe and other services for the oil and gas pipeline industry. Granite Peak Development, LLC is the largest full service commercial real estate development company in Wyoming. Services include commercial, industrial, retail and residential development, leasing/brokerage, property management, marketing, site selection, land acquisition, consulting, entitlement, platting, financing and build-to-suit options. Cheyenne LEADS is a private, not-for-profit economic development organization serving as the economic development entity for the City of Cheyenne and Laramie County, Wyoming. LEADS can assist non-retail businesses in all phases of are relocation or expansion.