2003 -- The Cape Girardeau-area business year in review

By Scott Moyers

Special to Business Today

The three-year bear stock market came to an end and hiring picked up after the longest job slump in six decades. But that news came too late to save the Jim Wilson Co., which announced it was closing and laying off its 65 employees.

MidAmerica Hotels razed its 40-year-old Holiday Inn to make way for a new Holiday Inn Express. Later, plans were unveiled for another 180-room hotel in Cape Girardeau not too far from there.

Plans for a $58 million ethanol plant were announced for Cape Girardeau, a project that could lead to the ultimate form of recycling -- generating electricity from the city's garbage.

Gary Forsee, a man with strong local ties, was named the CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the telecommunications industry and then came home to speak to graduating college students.

There was news across the health-care front, too, including expansions by both hospitals and exciting new technologies that promise to improve the way people are treated for cancer.

The community also lost two prominent and influential business leaders with the deaths of local McDonald's owner Jerry Davis in March; and in December downtown visionary Charlie Hutson, who owned Hutson's Furniture.

While the wider world looked at war, white-collar scandals and a crackdown on telemarketers, local business headlines of 2003 were a mix of -- what else? -- good and bad.

"It's probably like this every year," said John Mehner, president and CEO of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce. "There's such a difference between the highs and the lows."

Mehner said the success stories like the ethanol plant and the improving economy are tempered by the deaths of Hutson and Davis and the closing of the Wilson Co.

"You do forget all the stuff that happens in one year," he said.

Here, we offer a reminder of some -- but not all -- of the highlights of the 2003 business year (in chronological order):

Hotels, health care, stinging job losses

* On Jan. 7, MidAmerica Hotels Corp. announced it would tear down the 41-year-old Holiday Inn, which it did later in the year. The new $6 million building is being constructed on the site. Several new restaurants for the property are also in the works.

* Also on Jan. 7, St. Francis Medical Center began seeing patients at its new Cancer Institute, offering radiation oncology services for the first time.

* Across town, Southeast Missouri Hospital began celebrating its 75th year in 2003. The hospital opened on Jan. 9, 1928.

* In January, it also was announced that Missouri lost more than 90,000 jobs over a 20-month period, which ranked it highest in the nation.

* Late in January, Union Planters bank at 325 Broadway shut its doors, citing years of decreasing customers and leaving the downtown without a full-service bank for the first time in years. But then in December a new bank -- Scott City-based Security Bank and Trust -- took over the spot.

* The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce presented the Rush H. Limbaugh Award to Mike Kohlfeld of Kohlfeld Distributing. The Small Business of the Year Award went to Ford & Sons Funeral Home.

Davis, Sprint CEO and a failed take-over bid

* On March 5, Jerry Davis, the man who brought McDonald's to Cape Girardeau 35 years ago, died in an airplane crash. The crash also claimed the life of Kenneth M. Krongos.

* On May 13, St. Francis Medical Center broke ground for its new $20 million Health and Wellness Center. The four-story, 134,000-square-foot center is expected to be finished by fall of next year.

* On March 18, Cape Girardeau Central High School graduate Gary Forsee was named CEO of Sprint Corp., one of the most powerful jobs in the telecommunications industry. In December, he returned here to speak to graduating college seniors.

* The Jackson Chamber of Commerce gave out its community service awards on June 16: Wal-Mart was Business of the Year; Arnold Strickert was given the R.A. Fulenwider Meritorious Community Service Award; and ARI was awarded the Industry of the Year.

* On June 10, Southeast Missouri Hospital announced its plans to build a $15 million medical office building and parking garage on Broadway. The building is scheduled to be finished in July 2005.

* Also in June, the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau commissioned a $42,000 marketing study that was intended to give the city a brand name it could sell to tourists. In November, the CVB unveiled a new marketing logo that depicts the sun rising over the Mississippi River and the slogan "where the river turns a thousand tales."

* In July, a hostile take-over attempt by competitor ArvinMeritor had the 315 employees at Dana Corp.'s Cape Girardeau plant buzzing with uncertainty. The attempt failed. In December, it was reported that the failed attempt by the auto parts company would eat into ArvinMeritor's profits by about $5 million.

TIF, Jim Wilson and Albertson's resolution

* In July, the developers of the upscale Prestwick Plantation withdrew their hotly contested request for tax-increment financing. Then in November, a new plan was brought forward that would help pay for the 700-home subdivision that would rely on city bonds to fund some construction costs.

* In August, 65 workers at Jim Wilson Co. -- a wholesale distributor of automotive and truck parts, tires and shop equipment -- were out of work when the company announced it was closing. The workers also lost millions in retirement money from their stock ownership plan.

* In October, the Missouri Harley Owners Group, or HOG, decided to hold its annual rally in Cape Girardeau in 2005, after a successful event here in 2001. It promises to be a big story that year, too, with a big impact on the city's economy.

* Later that month, St. Louis-based Drury Inns Inc. unveiled plans for a new 180-room hotel in Cape Girardeau along Interstate 55. This announcement delighted tourism officials.

* October also was the month that Martin and Tootie Hecht announced they were closing Hecht's, the downtown clothing store, after 86 years of business.

* After sitting empty for 18 months, the former Albertsons grocery store building was purchased by Southeast Missouri Hospital, which plans to open a new medically based fitness and rehabilitation center.

Ethanol plant, reaching 10,000, and the bridge

* December kicked off with the announcement of a new $58 million ethanol plant in Cape Girardeau's Nash Road Industrial Park. The plant could lead to the building of a companion 20-megawatt power plant that would generate electricity from the city's garbage. Construction could begin this spring and would be the first such plant in Southeast Missouri.

* More good news came on Dec. 12, when the Dow Jones Industrials closed above 10,000, a milestone not seen in 18 months.

* Perhaps the biggest story of the year on any front came Dec. 13, when the $100 million Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge was opened in grand fashion. Many on both sides of the bridge are hoping that the projected increase in traffic will provide a boon to business.

* On Dec. 17, an agreement between Cape Girardeau businessman Jim Drury and the city ended more than five years of lawsuits over the River Campus project.

* It also was announced in December that the 1140th Engineer Battalion was being activated to fight the war on terror. That will deplete Southeast Missouri's work force by 500 people.

Now, on to 2004.

Scott Moyers is business editor of the Southeast Missourian.