The Park County Complex is structurally sound enough to be used as a large capacity events center, according to Elevation Structural Design’s report on the feasibility.

“Basically the building’s in really good shape,’ professional engineer Dane Hopkin said. “The building is built according to plans from what I can see. When I put new required loads on, the frame passes.”

Park County Engineer Brian Edwards had the study done after Park County Commissioners agreed to go along with a group of Cody leaders who are looking for a 500-plus capacity event space in the Cody region.

Hopkin noted the building, even if opened up more, would still need to have 10-inch columns spaced through for support, as is in the ground floor Cody library, which would prevent too much of a wide open space.

With that hurdle passed, those city leaders interested are planning on forming a committee that will include commissioner Lee Livingston and likely Cody Mayor Matt Hall, Park County Travel Council Executive Director Ryan Hauck, Buffalo Bill Center of the West Director of Revenue Bruce Sauers, Hopkin and others.

“I think we’ve got a for sure maybe,” Hall said. “If nothing else it’s a pretty good exercise to see what can be done with the building.”

In October of 2023, the Park County Publics Works Department engaged Elevation Structural Design (ESD) to conduct a structural feasibility study to determine if the Park County Complex (PCC) Building can be used for a community events center, the company wrote in its report. The intent of the center would be to host corporate meetings, trainings, conventions, etc.

“Based on the Existing Documentation Review, On-Site Assessment, and the Structural Code and Analysis of the building, the PCC is structurally adequate to support the code required Assembly Live Loads without major structural retrofit or reconstruction efforts,” the design company reported.

The county acquired the more than 116,000-square-foot building and the 22-acre campus from Marathon Oil Company in 2005. While the ground floor is largely taken over by the Cody Library, the upper two floors have seen a variety of organizations rent suites from the county, including Northwest College’s Cody campus and the Department of Family Services.

In July, Hall, Sauers and Hauck talked to commissioners about the potential of turning the upper floors of the Park County Complex into a convention center with a capacity beyond what anything in the region can offer.

Sauers, who is also on the board of the group that puts on the Winchester Gun Show each year in Cody, said the group could’ve added another 50 tables if they had the space. Now, the show will need a new venue regardless in a couple of years because Riley Arena will no longer be available due to a plan to keep the ice down for most of the year.

It was the first step of the latest multi-governmental push to look at an events center in Cody able to handle more than the 300 people that current spaces such as the Holiday Inn and the museum are limited to.