CITY CONSIDERS CVB TAX TO BUY SEMINARY LAND

Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau officials worry that a city plan to buy 16 acres of the old St. Vincent's property could delay construction of a new CVB building.

The city could tap into the Convention and Visitors Bureau Fund to buy the old St. Vincent's Seminary property. CVB money comes from motel and restaurant taxes.

City Manager Michael Miller said Wednesday that is an option. But he hopes to secure funding from an outside source.

Miller wouldn't name the funding source, because it is still being negotiated. Publicity now could kill the financing scheme, he said.

The proposed park land is along the Mississippi River south of Morgan Oak Street. The land surrounds the complex of brick buildings that once served as a Catholic school. A private foundation wants to turn those buildings into a cultural center.

The CVB operation is budgeted at $1 million for the current fiscal year. That includes $250,000 for construction of a 3,000-square-foot building to house CVB offices. The plan calls for the structure to be built at Osage Park, where the city is building a community center.

But opposition from Mayor Al Spradling III has held up the project.

Spradling wants the city to consider putting the CVB in the former seminary, a plan CVB officials oppose.

the mayor said the CVB doesn't need a new building at this time and much of the tax money already is allocated for other uses.

"We just don't need to spend money for the sake of spending money," Spradling said.

Motel and restaurant tax money goes to retire the Show Me Center bonds and operate the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The council also has tapped the CVB Fund to finance the Shawnee Park softball and soccer fields, and build the Osage Park community center near Kingshighway and Mount Auburn Road.

The city last year decided to spend another $1.1 million to finish the Shawnee and Osage parks projects. The city will issue bonds to finance the work. Motel and restaurant tax revenue will pay off the bonds.

John Richbourg, city finance director, said the city could issue an additional $100,000 in bonds to help pay for the old seminary property.

The city has applied for $440,000 in federal funds, and would kick in another $110,000 to buy the land. The cost works out to more than $34,000 an acre.

Bob Hoppmann of the CVB doesn't oppose the use of motel and restaurant tax money to buy the land, provided it doesn't hold up plans for construction of a CVB building.

Hoppmann chairs the CVB advisory board.

He said cities nationwide are increasingly tapping into CVB funds. "CVBs have money because of motel and restaurant taxes and everybody is trying to get their hands on it," Hoppmann said.

Cape Girardeau's motel and restaurant tax revenue climbed by 14.7 percent in fiscal 1995, which ended June 30.

But through the first six months this fiscal year, the tax revenue has increased only 2.7 percent over a year ago, Richbourg said.

He doesn't know why that has happened. The increase is slightly less than the expected 3.25 percent increase on which the city based its CVB Fund budget for the current year, he said.

That budget projects annual tax revenue of about $850,000 for the CVB Fund. In addition, the fund began the year with about a $300,000 balance.

Hoppmann said the CVB wants to be at Osage Park because of the need for close coordination with the community center and the conventions that will be held there. The community center will be built this year.

Mary Miller, bureau director, said Osage Park is only a short drive from the motels, Interstate 55 and the Show Me Center.

She and Hoppmann said they want the CVB offices in a high traffic area for customer convenience and visibility.

But Spradling questioned the need for high visibility when much of the CVB's work is fielding telephone inquiries and mailing out information.

Spradling said the seminary site could be ideal since it sits along the future path of Route 74 and the new Mississippi River bridge that will be built. The new route would connect with I-55.