A chain-link fence has ringed the dirt lot at 1294 Coffeen Avenue since the first week of June. No signage announces what's coming. No banner promises an opening date beyond a vague reference to autumn. Weeds have had all summer to work their way through the gravel where the building that housed Wyoming Downs and JB's Restaurant used to stand.
Two blocks in either direction, the story is different. A drive-thru opened. A sandwich shop opened. Both are open now, while the much larger project at 1294 Coffeen is still in its early stages.
That gap shows how project size shapes the pace of change along one of Sheridan's main commercial corridors.
Two Storefronts Opened While the Big Lot Sat Fenced
Coffeen Avenue picked up a 7Brew Coffee drive-thru this year, adding another stop to the corridor's coffee lineup. A few weeks later, Jersey Mike's Subs opened its doors on Aug. 12, becoming Sheridan's newest sub chain. Both are franchise formats built for speed: a standardized floor plan, a corporate build-out team, a single tenant signing a single lease. Neither had to coordinate multiple businesses moving into the same address at the same time.
Here's roughly where things stand along that stretch as of late September:
| Location | What's there | Status as of late September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 1294 Coffeen Ave | Former Wyoming Downs / JB's Restaurant site | Demolished in June, fenced lot, no tenants named yet |
| Coffeen Ave (7Brew) | Drive-thru coffee stand | Open |
| Coffeen Ave (Jersey Mike's) | Sub sandwich shop | Opened Aug. 12 |
Developer Stephen Grimshaw told the Sheridan Press back in June that the site would become retail, office, and restaurant space by this fall, and fall only started five days ago, so the project is on the timeline he named. The difference comes down to scale. Two chain locations have opened on the street this year while the larger site works its way through planning.
What Grimshaw Is Actually Building at 1294 Coffeen
The reason for the slower pace is the scope of what's replacing the old building. Grimshaw Investments, the same company behind several affordable housing apartments and townhomes around Sheridan, has final plans calling for 10,000 square feet of retail, office, and restaurant space on the site. That includes a 2,300 square-foot restaurant area and eight separate retail and office spaces, each running between 500 and 600 square feet.
Grimshaw has owned the property for several years. His company also owns the stretch of Coffeen Avenue running from the Little Goose Creek intersection down to Avoca Avenue, and he'd been working through plans for this particular parcel for more than a year before the demolition crews showed up in June. He described the project as one he'd wanted to see happen for a long time.
The project is currently moving through preliminary plans handled by Loven Engineering and Ryan Brown Collaborative, both based in Cheyenne. That's a different process than leasing an existing pad site to a franchise. Eight small commercial spaces means eight separate tenant negotiations, on top of engineering sign-off for the full 10,000 square feet before any of it opens. A drive-thru coffee stand answers to one corporate lease. A mixed-use building with eight bays answers to eight different businesses, each with their own timeline for signing, building out, and opening their doors.
The Rest of Sheridan's Restaurant Scene Is Moving Fast Too, Just Not Toward Growth
The turnover on Coffeen Avenue isn't happening in isolation. Sheridan has lost a handful of local eateries over the past year, among them Hygge Hearth Coffee, Dragon Wall Buffet, and Killy's Smokehouse. The Range Bar closed temporarily as well, and reporting on Sheridan's restaurant scene indicates it's set to reopen as an upscale restaurant rather than return as the sports bar it was.
That backdrop matters for how to read the Coffeen Avenue project. A 2,300 square-foot restaurant space and eight retail bays represent a real bet on independent, small-footprint businesses at a moment when several of Sheridan's own sit-down and counter-service restaurants have struggled to stay open. The chains landing on Coffeen Avenue this year, the coffee drive-thru and the sandwich shop, are exactly the kind of low-overhead, corporate-backed formats built to survive the margins that have been squeezing local operators. Grimshaw's build is betting the opposite direction: that eight independent businesses can fill space built specifically for them, on a street that's otherwise been consolidating toward drive-thrus and national names.
What to Watch For
As of this writing, no tenant has been announced for the restaurant space or for any of the eight retail and office bays at 1294 Coffeen. The lot is still fenced. The plans are still preliminary, moving through the two Cheyenne firms handling the engineering work. Grimshaw's own timeline points to this fall, and the season runs through late December.
The next visible sign will most likely be permit activity or a sign on the fence naming a tenant. A building with eight small spaces and a restaurant to fill takes shape in stages, and each new tenant announcement will fill in more of the picture for the neighbors who pass it every day.
If you've been keeping half an eye on that fence every time you drive past, you're not the only one. Chad A. Conley tracks what's changing along Sheridan's commercial corridors as part of staying current on the town itself, not just the listings in it. Got a question about what's shaping up on Coffeen Avenue or anywhere else in Sheridan County? Let's Connect.
