The Wyoming Business Council (WBC) Board of Directors will hold its regular quarterly meeting on March 10 via Zoom.
The Board will convene at 8 a.m. to attend a virtual tour of Converse, Platte, Natrona, and Niobrara counties and consider Business Ready Communities (BRC) grant proposals. The board will also hear an overview of Wyoming’s energy economy, consider amendments to the administrative rules for the Large Loan Program and consider the results of the WBC’s FY20 financial audit. Board members will adjourn into executive session at 11:30 a.m. for personnel matters and will reconvene their public meeting at 1 p.m.
Visit https://wyomingbusiness.org/boardbook for the full agenda and meeting materials.
The public is invited to join the Zoom meeting here.
To speak during the meeting, please send an email to wbc-conference@wyo.gov prior to 5 p.m. on March 8. Please state your name and the topic about which you would like to speak.
ABOUT THE BUSINESS READY COMMUNITY (BRC) PROGRAM AND APPLICATIONS
The Wyoming Business Council administers the Business Ready Community grant and loan program, which provides financing for publicly owned infrastructure that serves the needs of businesses and promotes economic development within Wyoming communities.
Business Council staff review each application, conduct in-person or virtual site visits, and make presentations to a board subcommittee before making final recommendations to the full board.
The Business Council board is required by statute to forward BRC grant and loan recommendations to the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) for final approval. The SLIB is comprised of the five statewide elected officials: the governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer and state superintendent of public instruction.
The SLIB will make final decisions on BRC project requests at its 8 a.m. meeting on April 8th.
The following applications will be reviewed by the Business Council board of directors on Wednesday.
Business Committed
The City of Lander requests a $3 million grant and $2.7 million loan combination from the Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program (BRC) to construct a 22,500 square-foot facility on 1.54 acres of property for the Maven headquarters. The site lends itself to further expansion, as it is adjacent to Central Wyoming College – Lander campus and the Lander Economic Development Association’s (LEDA) Enterprise Park. The funding will allow them to expand their product lines and sale as well as create 23 new jobs. (Staff recommends funding as requested.)
Managed Data Center Cost Reduction
Laramie County requests a $2.25 million Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program (BRC) data center grant to reduce electricity and internet costs of the operation for VM Accel’s Accelerated Data Center in downtown Cheyenne. The company offers high-performance computing services for workloads including artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Video Transcoding, Weather Modeling, Data Analysis, and more.The company is required to contribute 125% or $2.8 million in capital investment and payroll. (Staff recommends funding as requested.)
Community Readiness
The Rock Springs-Sweetwater County Airport Board requests a $3 million Business Ready Community Grant and Loan Program (BRC) grant to modernize the Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport’s commercial airline terminal through renovation and expansion. This project will also develop over 170 acres of land that can be marketed to aerospace or other industry. (Staff recommends funding as requested.)
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