Room to grow: New Town House Inn owners to add restaurant, strip mall

The new owners of the Town House Inn in Cape Girardeau have plans beyond remodeling the hotel -- they want to redevelop the nearly two-acre property on Kingshighway by adding a new restaurant and strip mall.

Matt and Robin Goehman bought the 51-room hotel Nov. 1 from brothers Pete and Manny Patel. The Patels had recently remodeled the rooms and razed the building that housed the hotel's offices and a restaurant and bar.

The Goehmans saw the extra room as an opportunity.

"We don't have definite plans," Robin Goehman said. "But we're thinking a restaurant would be a good thing to go in there."

The words Waffle House are being bandied about, but the Goehmans said they haven't contacted the chain yet and that people shouldn't assume that's what it will be.

"But we do want a breakfast/lunch type of place," she said.

Matt Goehman said the couple already own the five-story Boulevard Apartments, which used to be the Sunny Hill Hotel. But there is a shortage of rooms, which primarily are short-term efficiency apartments, some of which rent by the week. So when the Town House came up for sale, the Goehmans thought it would fit nicely into their plans.

"We wanted to concentrate on the niche market we're working on," Matt Goehman said.

So they bought the Town House -- the couple declined to reveal the price tag -- and are adding their own personal touch to it, even though it was recently remodeled.

"There are a few things we would have done differently," Matt Goehman said. "So we're changing them, making the rooms nicer, things like that."

The rooms are being painted and new air conditioners are being installed, for example. They plan to put in a new roof and give the hotel a more modern look next summer, he said. A new sign will be put up to show the time and temperature as well as hotel price specials.

"Over the next year, we're going to make a lot more improvements," he said. "It's going to look practically new."

In the spot in front of the hotel where the office building was torn down, Matt Goehman said he'd like to see a Waffle House kind of restaurant.

"That's one of the franchises we'd prefer," he said.

This spring, new asphalt will resurface the area, he said. Then they plan to put up a sign, seeking if a separate developer would like to put a restaurant there. At the same time, the Goehmans will be doing some investigating with Waffle House and other restaurants on their own.

"We'll just see what happens," he said.

Meanwhile, on the south side of the hotel, room exists for a strip mall that could house a Subway-style sandwich shop and other store front, Matt Goehman said. While the restaurant seems a sure thing, the strip mall is "more up in the air," he said. "We're still looking at all of our options."

Ricki Ing, a real estate broker for Prudential Bridgeport Inc., represented the Goehmans in the sale. She said the location is a good one, with high traffic counts and good visibility.

"Matt is doing a lot of fix-up, cleanup work," she said. "I think it would be an excellent location for a restaurant. He wanted that location. He likes the spot. He's considering lots of things. It will be a much needed make-over for the Town House and the rest of the property."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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