Development duo breathing new life into long-closed Lorimier Apartments

New life is being brought back to the Lorimier Apartments building. Jason Coalter and Dustin Richardson of Centurion Development LLC are seeing to that.

“This, at one time, was probably one of the most prestigious places to live. And we want to return it to that,” Coalter said.

“This district is named the Lorimier Apartment District,” Richardson said. In the city archives, “this whole block is named after the building,” which is near the corner of Lorimier and William streets.

When the renovation is complete, the three-level apartment building will house 12 lofts, each about 800 square feet.

The Lorimier Apartments building was built in 1925. It’s been added to the National Register of Historic Places and Cape Girardeau’s Endangered Buildings List.

Work continues Wednesday morning on the Lorimier Apartments in downtown Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

This is a historic renovation project for Coalter and Richardson, and they intend to keep as many of the building’s original elements as possible.

Trim work will be salvaged or custom-made to match the original. The original windows will be matched exactly, Richardson said, except they will be double-paned.

The windows of the apartments, once boarded up, have been unboarded and removed.

Richardson said new windows will not be installed until they receive final approval on their historic-preservation application.

Interior demolition work can begin before final approval from the Department of Economic Development is received, but much of the renovation is dependent on approval, which could take up to 90 days.

Because of this, Centurion Development does not have a completion date on the project.

A rough estimate, Coalter said, would be 12 to 18 months.

Considerable work is needed to make the building livable.

Part of the facade has started to lean over time, and it will require attention.

“Everything will stay original,” Richardson said of the facade. “We’ll pull it down brick-by-brick and re-lay it.”

When replacement brick is needed because of damage, they will replace it with the same type of brick.

“We’re getting ready to tear a house down on Themis, and it’s got the same brick in it,” Richardson said. “A lot of that will come over here to patch back in where we need it to.”

Each level of the building is about 4,000 square feet. Each floor will have four lofts, and their features will vary.

The two ground-floor apartments facing the street will have direct entrance and porch space.

The other two street-level apartments and the upper level will have a shared entrance. The front doorway enters right into the stairwell.

Richardson said the original stairs and five-panel doors will be kept in the building.

Some lofts will have refurbished fireplaces and mantles.

“We’re going to try to salvage those. They’ll be inactive, but they’ll still have the original fireplace,” Richardson said.

The walkout basement apartments will be handicapped accessible.

In the rear apartments, walls installed after the original construction need to be taken out. Historically, Richardson said, the walls weren’t there.

“Somebody closed it in,” he said. The removal of the walls will provide those apartments with shared deck space.

“It’s going to be phenomenal when it gets done,” Coalter said.

Coalter and Richardson have renovated historical buildings through Centurion Development since 2007, but their relationship goes further back than that.

They grew up as friends in Cape Girardeau just a mile away from each other and attended high school together.

After graduation, “I was doing new construction and custom homes and such, and he had started to get into the rental business,” Richardson said.

Eventually, they started working together.

Their first project was 203 S. Middle St.

Since then, they’ve developed several historic and commercial properties, including El Sol Mexican Restaurant and the new location of Broussard’s Cajun Cuisine.

In fact, the Broussard’s development is the reason Lorimier Apartments has taken so long to get underway.

Richardson said they’ve owned the Lorimier property for two years, but the opportunity to develop the Cajun restaurant’s new building in downtown Cape Girardeau caused them to “put the brakes” on the apartment project.

Coalter and Richardson, through their company, often buy and renovate commercial and rental properties.

But their hope is to facilitate development of buildings for properties Centurion Development doesn’t already own.

Although their focus isn’t always on historical renovation, Coulter and Richardson find great satisfaction in working on buildings such as Lorimier Apartments.

“It’s a challenge. Every one of them is different,” Richardson said.

“There’s something about taking a building most people think needs to be torn down and making it brand-new,” Coalter said. “That’s where the fulfillment comes from.”

bbrown@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

142-148 South Lorimier St., Cape Girardeau, MO