SEMO president pitches hotel idea

Imagine a multistory hotel rising from Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus, part of a partnership between private development and the public university that would bring a commercial/academic complex to Cape Girardeau's riverfront.

Southeast Missouri president Ken Dobbins would like to see Southeast get into the hospitality business, so to speak, a viable answer, he believes, to the burgeoning River Campus' growing pains and residential needs.

"We have the land; now we need a partner," Dobbins said.

Here's his idea: The university partners with a developer and operator of a national hotel chain, like Embassy Suites, Dobbins said. The developers build the hotel on the approximately three acres that the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation has purchased or received over the last decade -- including two acres on the west side of the Fountain Street extension, and more than an acre on the east side, near the River Campus.

Much of the hotel would serve leisure and business travelers. But during the school year, Dobbins said, the property would be home to dozens of visual and performing arts students -- basically built-in revenue.

"We'll guarantee 75 to 100 beds for nine months" a year, the president said. "There are so many different possibilities; you could almost have a wing of students."

Right now, Dobbins said his vision is just that, but he believes it's feasible.

"I have talked with a couple of people who are in the hotel business, and they seem to think that might not be a bad idea, when we can guarantee you a certain number of bed nights per year," he said.

Dobbins declined to say who he has talked to and had no comment when asked if he had spoken to Midamerica Hotels Corp. The late Jim Drury, the company's principal owner, sued the city over its use of hotel and restaurant tax money to fund the River Campus project. The Missouri Supreme Court subsequently ruled in the city's favor.

The River Campus, which opened in 2007, is home to a growing university and community cultural and arts scene. Bob Cerchio, assistant director of the River Campus, said last week that it's becoming increasingly more difficult to book touring shows at the Bedell Performance Hall because of the active schedules of Southeast's Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts.

"This has been the hardest season to book here," Cerchio said. "Our academic calendar has filled up. There are more concerts, more plays, more shows done in academic circles, and we only have one performance hall."

The department has doubled in since the River Campus opened, from about 250 majors to 500, Dobbins said.

Beth Scherer, administrative assistant for the department, said last week the Department of Theatre and Dance has seen its average number of majors climb from about 30 to around 140 over the past six years. She said the River Campus has helped draw interest and has generated a renewed creative energy at Southeast.

Dobbins' vision is of a commercial and arts complex, including hotel, classroom space, faculty offices, rehearsal halls and food service.

"One of the issues we see as a problem there is there is not a lot of opportunities [for dining] without going off campus, or farther than you'd like," he said.

Southeast wouldn't be the first university in the hotel business.

The University of California at Santa Cruz owns and operates the University Inn. The hotel offers double and single residence hall-type rooms and provides housing for continuing and graduate students during the academic year, hotel housing for short-term university guests, as well as the public, and year round conference services, according to the university's website.

Georgetown University-owned Hotel and Conference Center, managed by Aramark, is next to the Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. The University of Iowa owns and operates the Iowa House Hotel in the campus' Iowa Memorial Union, although students do not reside there.

Dobbins said a hotel could be an integral part of the university's hospitality management program, giving students real-life experience. He pointed to public/private partnerships where developed properties are eventually transferred to public entities, but said he's not sure if that's the right approach.

The space, Dobbins said, would be a draw for visitors coming to Cape Girardeau's revitalized and developing downtown.

"We want to explore partnerships," he said. "It's time to think about where we want to be in 2020, or sooner than that."

mkittle@semissourian.com

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