Council Considers Options On Downtown Property

Possible land acquisition downtown by the city of Casper may move forward Tuesday when city council considers taking options on parcels in the Old Yellowstone District. It's part of a fast moving vision for a new conference center and hotel downtown.

City Manager, John Patterson, says it would mean small down payments on the parcels as they continue work on other facets of the proposed development, "and so in this case were putting 1% money down in order to hold the property until such time that we can put out an RFP for a hotelier and then time to negotiate a deal."

The city is taking proposals through early September for potential hoteliers who would finance privately, build and manage a hotel attached to a conference center that the city would construct using public money.

Patterson suggests ball park figures of 12 million for the conference center and 30 million for a hotel.

At last week's city council meeting, local businessman and owner of the Parkway Hotel, Pat Sweeney suggested the city may be under-estimating the costs involved and questioned the city's ability to finance its share.