Warehouse and Flex Building Construction in Bar Nunn, Wyoming

Spec shells, flex buildings and covered storage in Bar Nunn, Wyoming, with truck courts on level ground along US Highway 20-26 north of Casper.

The streets of Bar Nunn follow old runways, and that tells a builder most of what he needs to know about the dirt. The town was built around Wardwell Field, Casper's original airport, which served as the regional airport until 1952, and the old runways now form its street pattern. Flat, open and graded once already, that ground along US Highway 20-26 suits the shells we put up for operators who want room to turn a truck: spec warehouses, flex buildings and covered storage on the north edge of the Casper metro.

Bar Nunn sits at 5,285 feet and grew about 35 percent, from 2,213 residents in 2010 to 2,981 in the 2020 census. Growth like that brings the usual second wave of building: a feed and farm supplier, a plumbing wholesaler, a tool rental yard, a place to store a fleet of service trucks. Those are small building products and supply distributors in effect, and they buy a building the way a freight company does, by the truck path and the door.

We approach Bar Nunn as part of a corridor, not a dot on a map. The highway, the airport history and the neighboring cities all feed it, and a good flex light industrial building there can serve a tenant on the north side of Casper as easily as one in town. Operators who already rent space in Mills often compare the two lots side by side.

A town laid out by an airfield

Bar Nunn's own history describes how the Army Air Corps bought land along US Highway 20-26 in 1952 and moved the Natrona County airport to Casper. A rancher bought back the 640 acre Wardwell Field property in 1954, subdivided it in 1958 and the area incorporated as a town in 1982. For a builder, that history is less trivia than site data. The old airfield is level, and its street grid is wider and straighter than most small-town layouts.

Wide, straight streets matter when a delivery truck has to make a left turn into a driveway. We look at the lot's approach from the highway, the radius of the nearest intersection and the sight lines before we place a door. Where the town's grid helps, we use it. Where a parcel has an awkward corner, we move the court to the back and run a long entry drive.

Wind, level ground and long truck turns

Open ground is a gift for a truck court and a problem for a roof. A building with no neighbors takes wind from every direction, and the side doors on a Bar Nunn shell need a plan for it: canopy placement, door seals, and a dock position that sheltered trucks can reach without a crosswind slam. We lay the building out with the prevailing direction in mind and let the engineer of record set the design speed from the local criteria.

Level ground also lets us keep the yard grade gentle, which is the right answer for trailers parked with landing gear down. We slope the apron away from the dock for drainage but not so steeply that a loaded trailer creeps. Our truck court and trailer yard detailing calls out crown, inlet spacing and the winter plow path in the same set of drawings.

Buildings that fit a growing north-Casper edge

Most Bar Nunn requests are for one of three shapes. The first is a simple warehouse with two to four docks and a small office, built to be leased. The second is a shop-warehouse combination with tall overhead doors and a wash bay. The third is a covered yard, a roofed storage building with open sides and a heated corner, used by contractors for materials and equipment.

We build all three, usually in a pre-engineered steel frame with insulated panels, and we put in a slab thick enough to take loaded forklifts. Buyers who want something with more mass and a cleaner interior sometimes ask for tilt-wall, which we price alongside the steel option. Whichever wins, we leave knockout panels in the end wall so the building can grow without a demolition.

Fitting a build into a short season

Elevation in Bar Nunn runs 5,285 feet, and the earthwork window in central Wyoming is shorter than most buyers expect. We aim to have utilities in and the slab placed before cold weather, then close up the shell so interior framing, electrical and finishes continue under cover. That sequence turns the winter into productive time instead of a pause.

Steel and panel lead times set the real schedule, not the crews. We order structural steel as soon as the foundation design is final and the permit path is clear, and we confirm delivery windows with the supplier before we commit to a pour date. A realistic Bar Nunn schedule has a few firm milestones and honest ranges between them, and we put both in the contract documents.

Services that pair with a Bar Nunn shell

A first building often leads to a second. A tenant who starts in a 10,000 square foot shell may need an expansion when sales grow, and we frame the first building to make that cheap. Others come back to add a mezzanine, a fenced yard or a second dock.

If your first move is to buy a lot and wait for a tenant, ask about a spec shell with a clean slab, rough utilities and a plan for tenant improvements. It lets you show a real building to a prospect, and it shortens the lease-up because a tenant can pick the finishes inside walls that already stand.

Bring us the lot and the truck path

If you are weighing a parcel in Bar Nunn, send the address and the largest truck you expect. We will check the approach, the court and the soils, and give you a shell, a slab and a schedule you can use.

Plan Your Bar Nunn Project

Send the town, the site, the building size, the clear height, the dock count and the schedule. We will review the scope against the local snow, wind and frost values and follow up with next steps.