Vacant Kmart building to get new tenant

One of the largest — if not the largest — vacant commercial properties in Cape Girardeau will soon have a new tenant.

Orscheln Farm & Home plans to relocate its Cape Girardeau store to 11 S. Kingshighway, the former location of the “Big K” Kmart store, which closed in late November. Orscheln confirmed its plans to move into the building in a news release Friday.

Orscheln is four blocks away at 338 Christine St.

Renovation work has begun at the new location, which, when completed this fall, will provide Orscheln more than 50,000 square feet of space, more than four times more than its current location. A target date for the store’s opening at the new property has not been announced.

The expanded space will allow for a new Orscheln Outdoors department featuring firearms and ammunition, fishing gear and outdoor apparel, the release stated. The store’s clothing department will also expand to include a greater selection of clothing from brands such as Wrangler, Carhartt and Ariat. The pet, livestock and hardware departments will also expand and a giftware and home décor department will be added, according to the company’s news release.

“The expanded sales floor in the Cape Girardeau location will allow us to provide a more comfortable shopping experience for our customers,” Orscheln district manager Randy Croney said in the release. “The expansion will also allow us to carry more products from trusted brands that our customers know and love. We look forward to fostering relationships with customers as we work to meet their farm and home needs.”

According to the Southeast Missourian archives, the Kmart store opened in Cape Girardeau in 1974 as a 64,500-square-foot retail facility. In 1989, the company built an 18,000-square-foot addition to the building, bringing the structure’s total square footage to about 82,500. Orscheln will occupy approximately two-thirds of the building while a second, as-yet-unnamed retailer, will occupy the rest of the structure.

Orscheln Farm & Home, headquartered in Moberly, Missouri, owns and operates 167 stores in 11 states in the South and Midwest.

jwolz@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630