BusinessMay 4, 2024
Constructing Cape Girardeau: New buildings, new plans
Development is a measure of a city’s health and progress in many ways, and Cape Girardeau has no shortage of current and ongoing construction projects. These projects are bringing vital services to Cape Girardeau, such as housing for new and expectant mothers, and services that will enhance the quality of life for the region, such as the $107 million redevelopment of the West Park Mall. ...
Development is a measure of a city’s health and progress in many ways, and Cape Girardeau has no shortage of current and ongoing construction projects.
These projects are bringing vital services to Cape Girardeau, such as housing for new and expectant mothers, and services that will enhance the quality of life for the region, such as the $107 million redevelopment of the West Park Mall. The latter will be one of “the biggest private investment projects” to happen in the region, according to Nick Martin, president of project partner Pilot Construction Solutions.
Some of the projects such as The Riverview hotel were recently completed, others will be finished by the end of the year, such as The Pickleball Factory and Parc Motor Club, while multi-phase projects like the redevelopment of West Park Mall will take three to four years.
Here, B Magazine digs deeper into five construction projects that are reshaping what life in Southeast Missouri looks like.
Building for better lives
One of the recently completed construction projects was designed to give newborns a better start in the world.
Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri (CCSOMO) built the LifeHouse in Cape Girardeau at 535 Main St. The new building provides the same services as their LifeHouse facility in Springfield: chiefly, to assist pregnant women and new mothers experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Ken Palermo, CEO of CCSOMO, said the building provides “… all the different life attributes that help them [mothers] move forward on a more supportive and self-sufficient path, as they’re waiting for the birth of their child and up to a year afterwards.”
Each expectant or new mother lives in their own suite complete with a restroom and kitchen. There are 15 suites in total, with enough room for a mother, her baby and a sibling under 5 years old.
“I think that lends toward the dignity of providing some of these services and having something they can call their home,” Palermo said.
CCSOMO provides budgeting, cooking, mental health and substance abuse programs. They help mothers acquire work and attain an education if they need to do so.
“Every life skill that someone might need us to help build up, we can offer,” Palermo said.
He added the LifeHouse would take in any woman who reaches out to CCSOMO and meets their criteria.
The Cape Girardeau LifeHouse’s grand opening took place on Friday, April 19.
Residents will be admitted starting April 29.
Construction began on Jan. 30, 2023, the same day Palermo joined CCSOMO.
Perryville-based Robinson Construction Company completed the building. CCSOMO also worked with the St. Louis-based consulting firm NAVIGATE Building Solutions.
“They are supportive. They are intuitive. They have the expertise and background to get us through a project like this,” Palermo said of both companies.
A capital campaign to construct the facility raised more than $9 million between donations, pledges and state grants.
Many religious groups, Catholic and otherwise, offered support for the facility. Different employers have also reached out, willing to work with the mothers whenever they are ready to look for work.
Palermo said he hoped the completion of the LifeHouse and The Riverview hotel 1,000 feet up the road will motivate development along the northern stretch of Main Street.
A Beautiful View
The Riverview by Century Casinos hotel at 777 N. Main St. opened April 4, just in time for guests to book rooms for the Southeast Missouri State University sesquicentennial ball and solar eclipse a few days later.
The hotel’s debut is not the only aspect differentiating it from other hotels in the city.
“This is different from your typical hotel,” Lyle Randolph, vice president of operations and general manager for Century Casinos in Missouri, said. “… I think the experience we’re trying to create is something unique and something special to Cape Girardeau, especially for downtown.”
The Riverview is connected directly to Century Casino and the entertainment options that are available there or in the adjoining event center.
“As opposed to it being just a standalone hotel, the casino brings the opportunity for an overall entertainment complex where there are multiple things to do,” Randolph said.
The hotel features 69 rooms across seven floors. Most of the rooms, as the name implies, are designed to have an optimal view of the Mississippi River and the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.
“The views you’ll see in the hotel are ones that haven’t been available for a long time,” Randolph said.
The Riverview is not the first hotel of that name in downtown Cape Girardeau. A previous Riverview Hotel was one of the prominent buildings along Main Street during the 19th century before it was destroyed in a conflagration in 1916.
A new hotel had been proposed as soon as the casino first opened in 2012. When Century Casinos took over in 2019, they ramped up their plans.
Penzel Construction, based out of Jackson, spent just under two years building The Riverview.
“It’s not an easy task, but we all had the same goal in mind, and I think it’s a tribute to the talent locally,” Randolph said. “… They knocked it out of the park and did that in the midst of rising costs of materials and supply chain issues.”
Randolph said the hotel attracts people looking for different forms of entertainment and helps expose them to what Cape Girardeau has to offer, both in terms of experiences and views.
“In some ways, we’re very fortunate we have a flood wall that protects us from the river, but it also blocks the view,” he said.
Originally, the hotel was going to be built on the other side of the casino, by its event center, but that plan was soon nixed to get a better angle of the river.
“I think you had to get five stories tall before you could see over our building and see the river,” Randolph explained.
He wants the creation of the hotel to generate additional interest in downtown development.
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“I see the property as a whole here as another anchor in [Cape’s] downtown,” he said. “You have the River Campus on the south side, the casino here [and] you have the university a bit to the west.”
A new lease on life
One of the most anticipated ongoing developments in Cape Girardeau is the renovation of West Park Mall.
The mall was purchased at an auction three years ago by a consortium of local real estate developers and strategic partners known as River City Centre LLC (RCC). Lucas Haley, Michael Williams and Ben Ressel own and manage the group, with additional investment from Matthew Mills, Natalie Riley and Steve Holden.
Martin discussed the $107 million, multiphase process during the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Coffee breakfast in April.
He said the new owners aim to make the mall a premier destination once again.
“Their biggest focus since day one has been turning it into something that is not just good for themselves, but is good for the community, Cape, the region …” Martin said.
Unlike previous mall owners, members of RCC are local to the Cape Girardeau area.
“The guys that own the mall now, you’ll see some of them around Cape, you’ll see some of them downtown. They live here, they grew up going to the mall and this project has a personal impact to them. That’s important,” Martin added.
The first phase of construction will renovate 130,000 square feet and bring in six new national tenants.
Renovations to the mall will include adding exterior entrances to some stores, while keeping interior entrances and access to local stores within the mall.
“The traditional mall model of everyone entering into the interior has shifted based on retail and what they [stores] actually need,” Martin said.
Current work includes façade changes, replacing the mall’s original 1978 flooring and surgical demolition work. Construction is being done to maximize efficiency; there are some 900 parking lot spaces, Martin said, that could be replaced with room for retail.
“Our plan, construction-wise, is we want to be done by the end of the year,” he added. There are certain deadlines that must be met for some tenants to contractually move in.
In addition to Pilot Construction Solutions, other project partners include The Lawrence Group, Pace Properties, Integra Realty Resources and Robinson Industrial, Heavy & Commercial Contracting.
In total, Martin estimated all phases of the mall’s redevelopment would be done in the next three to four years.
In a June 2023 press release, RCC projected more than $80 million in increased tax revenue for local municipalities and the public school district brought about by people shopping at the mall.
They estimated the construction project would generate 750 jobs, with an additional 700 retail jobs created once construction is over.
Creating lifestyle opportunities
Another exciting development in Cape Girardeau was discussed at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Coffee breakfast in April.
Jeff Brune, spokesperson for developer Thorngate Holdings, gave First Friday attendees a look into the progress of The Pickleball Factory and Parc Motor Club located at 1507 Independence St., which has been vacant for approximately a decade.
“Both places are going to be the go-to place for pickleball and go-to place for car people in the region,” Brune said.
Brune says they are expected to open by the end of this summer.
With a whole 63,000 square feet of indoor space, the facility will be one of the largest buildings on Independence Street in Cape. Half of the building will be reserved for climate-controlled pickleball play — with 14 fenced-in cushioned courts, including one for competition play. All courts will be equipped with camera systems. Brune says their courts will be the most technologically advanced pickleball courts within a 200-mile radius.
On the other side, separated by a large wall, Parc Motor Club will offer storage for approximately 100 vehicles flat parked, with more storage when they start double stacking, Brune says. These vehicles could be extra vehicles or classic cars that local owners want to be safely stored and maintained. Brune says they will have professional detailing services, maintenance and other services that vehicle owners may need to keep their cars in shape.
“Think of a country club but for car people,” Brune said.
There will be monthly memberships for Parc Motor Club, and they plan on hosting social events in the space and having it available for event rentals, as well.
Both facilities will have their own frontage and separate entrances. There will be a bar and restaurant shared between the businesses, which will give opportunities for social gatherings.
“It’s going to be an anchor for that area [of Independence Street]. It’s starting to spur development already,” Brune says. “It’s going to be like nothing Cape has ever seen.”
In case of emergency, build EOC
Of all the construction projects in Cape Girardeau, the Cape Girardeau County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is sure to address dire needs in our region. The building’s purpose is to act as a headquarters during catastrophic emergencies.
“We will be there for any disaster,” Cape Girardeau County director of emergency management Sam Herndon said. “It could be for massive car wrecks, for any kind of weather events … it could be for building collapses, any kind of major event that’s going to take more than just a few hours.”
The EOC is being built adjacent to Interstate 55 at 3355 Veterans Memorial Drive in Cape Girardeau.
If any kind of disaster happens in the county, it won’t take long for the right equipment to be on-site. The EOC will store vehicles, tools and other equipment to ensure a rapid response.
“Primarily it’s going to be our day-to-day operating office, so we’ll be in there and it will house all of our equipment and potentially some other agencies’ equipment throughout the county,” Sam Herndon, the county’s director of emergency management, said.
Herndon and his deputy director Charles Wilson will be the only full-time staff at the EOC once it is completed. However, it will be able to accommodate up to 40 people if the need arises.
“It will help us get all the key agencies in one room, so we can have those conversations on what steps we need to do to … discuss what the needs are for the community,” he said.
The EOC is a building Herndon said he hopes never has to be used for its intended purpose, but it is available if the county needs it.
“You’ve seen other disasters in other communities and the issues that they’ve had,” he said. “Those have all been learning opportunities for us to put together a facility in a way that we think we can help get this community recovering quicker.”
Sides Construction out of Jackson broke ground in November 2023 and is on target to complete the facility by the end of June 2024.
“They’ve done a great job of sticking with the plan and hitting their target timelines,” Herndon said.
The only unexpected issue, Herndon said, was that the construction team hit more rock than they thought they would, but that did not impact the completion date. The building was designed by DILLE POLLARD Architecture, based in Poplar Bluff.
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