For 20 years, drivers entering or exiting the Mississippi River bridge in Cape Girardeau have been offered this choice: If they needed a tankful of unleaded, a quick Coke or a pack of smokes, there was Bi-State on one side or Rhodes on the other.

But with the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge expected to open a year from now some 900 feet downstream, one might assume that river-crossers would be forced to find a new place to fill up their tanks and that the long-standing competition between the two Morgan Oak convenience stores in Cape Girardeau would be snuffed out.

Not so.

Not wanting to lose out on the customer base of 14,000 drivers that cross the bridge daily -- with a projected increase to 26,000 cars a day by 2015 -- both business have bought property near the base of the new bridge at different corners of Sprigg Street and Highway 74.

Both also plan to have the more expansive stores open and ready to go by the time the first tires lay tread on the new bridge in 2003, meaning that drivers who cross the bridge will have the same convenience-store choices they've always had.

"I guess we'll continue to do battle another few decades," said Scott Blank, president of Bi-State Oil, whose grandfather opened the convenience store at 400 Morgan Oak 60 years ago. "Competition doesn't bother me. It's the nature of the beast."

Bi-State bought 3.3 vacant acres at the southeast corner of Sprigg Street and Highway 74 three years ago and is planning a 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot store that will feature 10 to 12 pumps with a separate diesel island. The new store, which Blank said would have a "historic look," will call for doubling the staff of the previous store from 10 to 20.

Meanwhile, Rhodes has bought property at the northeast corner of Sprigg and Highway 74, according to Jim Mauer, one of the owners. That means the stores will still be on opposite sides of the street.

Three houses sat on the property at the 500 block of Sprigg Street. One has been torn down and Mauer said the other two will be demolished within the next 60 days to make way for the convenience store that he described as a "scaled-down" version of the large Rhodes store that sits across from the Show Me Center on North Sprigg. The Rhodes by the old bridge, which was purchased in the mid-1980s, is at 407 Morgan Oak.

As far as competing with Bi-State, Mauer said they've always had a good relationship, specifically complimenting Scott Blank's father, Bob, who is the longtime owner of the family business.

"Bob and I go back a long way," Mauer said. "He's a good fella. We'll be competing across the street from them again, and that's just part of the business, I guess. But we've gotten along well over the years, and it's been fine. For us, the bottom line was that it's a good location with high traffic. We like high traffic. That's what we need to survive."

Mauer and Blank both said they hoped to keep the stores on Morgan Oak open, though they both were skeptical about the chances without bridge traffic.

"That would basically mean it would have to be supported by the neighborhood," Mauer said. "I don't know about that. We'll just have to wait and see."

Not cheap

While neither Bi-State nor Rhodes would reveal how much they paid for their new properties, Thomas L. Meyer, a real estate agent in Cape Girardeau since 1946, said it couldn't have come cheap. He estimated that the commercial property at those corners went for $6 to $10 a square foot, meaning that it probably cost $200,000 to $300,000 an acre.

"It's changing the character of the neighborhood," Meyer said. "And the most value you can get is at those corners. If you get 100 feet from those corners, the value depreciates substantially."

Meyer said that with the new River Campus, the new bridge and plans for the renovation of the Marquette Hotel downtown, property values in those areas have appreciated 15 percent, as opposed to the normal appreciation of about 3 percent a year.

Regardless of the cost to the business owners, customers of both stores said Friday they were glad to learn they could still buy gas or whatever else they needed on their way into Missouri or Illinois.

As Regina Hopkins of Herrin, Ill., pumped gas at Bi-State over the lunch hour, she recalled how her family always stopped at the Morgan Oak store when they came to Missouri.

"My grandmother lived in Grassy, and we'd come across the bridge all the time, and we came here every time," she said. "We'd use the bathroom, get a soda or gas or whatever. I'm glad it's still going to be right off the bridge to make it more convenient. Plus, there's a nostalgia thing."

Michelle Rogers drives across the bridge every day on her way from McClure, Ill., to Cape Girardeau to her job at radio station KGMO, where she works in advertising. She frequently stops at Rhodes.

"It's convenient," she said. "There aren't really any gas stations in Illinois on my way to work. I only deal with Rhodes, so I like stopping here. It's a good store. I'm glad there will be one off of the new bridge."

Blank said they would be reluctant to close their Morgan Oak store, which was first opened in that spot 60 years ago by his grandparents, Clyde and Lisa Foeste.

"If it weren't for the bridge, we wouldn't even be looking at this," Blank said. "We hope to be able to keep the other store open, but we'll probably have to close it. That will be hard. But we felt if the new bridge was going to be here, we were too. As much as we love our store, this is going to be our neighborhood now."

Illinois perspective

The Illinois side of the new bridge will probably not see much development. The new bridge will cut through Andy Juden's 300 acres, where he farms in Illinois, and will run through the south end of his property.

"I don't think any new businesses will go in here," said Juden, who is in charge of the Main Street Levee District in Cape Girardeau. "It's all floodplain. The levee over there can't offer enough protection to support new businesses."

He pointed out that the existing businesses -- such as the Purple Crackle, Guetterman Motors and Courtney's Restaurant -- won't have to move because the new bridge will connect to Highway 146, which already runs beside their businesses.

The stores will also be close to the River Campus arts school, which Southeast Missouri State University is planning to build on nearby property it owns.

The River Campus project would turn the old St. Vincent's seminary on Morgan Oak into a performing arts center for the university. The project would also include a museum.

Bi-State and Rhodes owners both said that would make an even larger customer-base to draw from.

"There are a lot of changes going on downtown," Blank said. "With the renovation of the Marquette Hotel, the River Campus, and the new bridge, we recognized how valuable the property is. I really see a push toward downtown."

Bi-State actually ended up buying more property than it needed for its convenience store. They hope to sell an acre and a half to some other commercial entity. Blank said they've had talks with several well-known fast-food restaurants. If that doesn't work out, Bi-State may open a restaurant there or develop a small strip mall or a car wash. The property they want to sell is located on the southeast corner, and the convenience store will be just south of it.

"We really don't know what it's going to be," Blank said. "If it were up to me, it would be a White Castle, because I love White Castle."

Bi-State and Rhodes are both looking forward to getting their stores open.

"I've been telling people that by the time the first car comes across the bridge, we'll have the doors open and be ready to roll," Blank said. "It's exciting for all of us."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137