Olive Garden, Panera, adding to 'hospitality community'

In a heavily-traveled part of Cape Girardeau, just off Interstate 55, Midamerica Hotels has been creating what Bob Hahn, vice president of development, calls a hospitality community.

The second phase of a three-phase plan is now close to winding up.

About 10 years ago, Hahn said, Midamerica built the Drury Lodge and brought in the Red Lobster and Cracker Barrel. More recently, he said, the company added the Texas Roadhouse restaurant and the Holiday Inn Express.

Adding to the hospitality soon will be three more restaurants. Already under construction are an Olive Garden restaurant and a free-standing Panera Bread Co., which will be the new location of the restaurant/artsian bakery currently at the Westfield West Park. Opening dates are tentative.

"The time frame is always based on many conditions, including the weather," Hahn said.

Panera's may be open before Christmas, he said, and the Olive Garden will most likely open sometime in the first quarter of 2006. Hahn said he is currently discussing options for the third restaurant, possibly another franchise, that would mix well with the other restaurants at the hospitality community. It is too early, he said, to say who may move into the third space.

Another construction phase is also in the works, Hahn said. After the current building has been completed, there will be another project: an 18,000-square-foot shopping center that will focus on clothing -- mostly boutique type shops with national brand merchandise. A small cafe will also be part of the project. Details about this phase, he said, are still very preliminary.

"We're not ready to make any announcements on this facility," Hahn said.

Midamerica Hotels management team includes Hahn; president, Ann Drury; Don Drury, vice president of construction; Joel Neikirk, director of operations and Harold Hale, comptroller. The company operates 37 Burger King restaurants in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and Kentucky. It also has two hotels in Cape Girardeau, a Holiday Inn Express in Paducah, Ky., and a Holiday Inn in south St. Louis County. It currently is developing commercial property in Jonesboro, Ark., Paducah, Cape and in the St. Louis area.