A St Louis-based manufacturer with two operations in Cape Girardeau will lease the new speculation building in Nash Road Industrial Park.

Spartech Corp., a producer of engineered thermoplastic materials, polymeric compounds and molded and profile products, will use the 200-by-300-foot, 60,000-square-foot building at 4901 Nash Road for a warehouse.

Spartech, which has 36 plants and annual sales of more than $700 million, already has one operation -- Spartech Compounding -- in Nash Road Industrial Park. The company also has Spartech Plastics at 2500 Spartech Drive.

"The building has been sold to Penzel and Company, which will lease it to Spartech," said Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association.

The association and a number of other interests put up the building. Robinson said the deal completes all three phases of the project: financing, building, and marketing.

The recruitment association started working with the other interests early in 1995 for the new building.

The building was designed by the Cape Girardeau architectural firm of Sebek, Alberson and Associates. Construction started in June 1995, and the building was completed in late 1996.

Groups working with the recruitment association included AmerenUE; the Greater Cape Girardeau Development Corp.; the Industrial Development Authority of Cape Girardeau County; and a number of banks, including Union Planters, Mercantile and NationsBank.

Also involved was the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, which supports the recruitment association. It helped in marketing of the building.