CHAMBER BUILDS NEW HOME

More room to meet and park at a better location.

Those were among criteria used by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce when it considered a new building, and chamber President John Mehner said they were met with the design and location of their new office in the 1200 block of Mount Auburn Road.

In the next couple of months Mehner hopes to be moving into the new office following more than two years of serious planning.

At 4,800 square-feet, the building is almost twice the size of the chamber's office at 601 N. Kingshighway. The available parking area will more than double because the building sits on eight-tenths of an acre and has 150 feet of frontage.

Many reasons were given for a new chamber building, Mehner said. In addition to providing more space for meeting and parking, chamber board members were concerned about the ease of getting to the building and the impression it would leave on visitors.

Entering and leaving the Kingshighway building can prove difficult because of traffic. In addition, once visitors have turned into the parking lot, the only direction they can go when they leave is south because of a concrete divider.

Less traffic travels near the Mount Auburn building and anyone leaving the chamber will be able to turn north or south from the parking lot.

The parking lot not only will be easier to manage, but it will have more than twice as many spaces. About 41 parking spaces, including handicapped-marked spots, will be created at the new site.

Conference facilities also were a requirement for the new building, Mehner said. While the existing building has very little room for meetings, the Mount Auburn building's board room will seat 50 people.

Chamber officials have thought about a new building for some time, but the plan was put on the back-burner in 1993, when revenue from the operation of the state license fee office was lost. The governor gave the bureau's operating contract to the University Foundation at Southeast Missouri State University.

With loss of that revenue and revenue from the Convention and Visitors Bureau when the city took control, plans for a new facility weren't discussed until a chamber retreat two years ago.

Plans for the new building were stepped up by news of the existing building's sale in November to Christopher and Myra Jung of Cape Girardeau. A new lease agreement with the Jungs allowed the chamber to remain in the building until November, but the chamber should be completely moved into the new one six months before the agreement expires.

The new building will be the fourth for the chamber since it was founded in 1920. During its first eight years, the chamber met in the Elks building before moving to 225 Broadway where it remained until November 1974. The chamber then set up shop at North Kingshighway.