B Magazine business briefs

Construction begins on new assisted-living facility

Newbridge Management LLC conducted groundbreaking ceremonies Oct. 7 for a new assisted-living and memory care facility at 1205 S. Mount Auburn Road in Cape Girardeau.

The 95-bed facility is tentatively slated to open in December 2022.

Accounting firm marks 90th anniversary

KEB, a multistate accounting, consulting and advisory firm with an office in Cape Girardeau, celebrated its 90th anniversary earlier this month and plans to continue its anniversary observance into the coming year.

The firm was founded Oct. 1, 1931 when it opened offices in St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois. The company now has nine locations in Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin.

KEB’s Cape Girardeau office, now located at 3266 Lexington Avenue, was initially an extension of the company’s St. Louis office and opened in 1974, initially to help serve the accounting needs of the area’s construction industry, specifically the R.B. Potashnick Co., which was a KEB client for many years.

Over the coming year, KEB will focus on community service as part of its yearlong anniversary celebration and is planning a series of events to “give back” and encouraging volunteerism, leadership and partnership within the communities where company offices are located.

Realtor, insurance agency to occupy Jackson office space

Ritter Real Estate has purchased an office building at 2905 E. Jackson Boulevard in Jackson and plans to open a satellite real estate office there by early November. Purchase of the three-suite building was finalized in late September.

Jared Ritter, the real estate firm’s owner/broker, told the Southeast Missourian his firm was originally going to list the building on behalf of owners Derek and Nicole Dirnberger. “But it was too good to pass up, so I bought it,” he said.

Nicole Dirnberger is a State Farm Insurance agent whose office is located in the building. She has moved her agency to a different suite in the building while Ritter Real Estate’s satellite office will occupy the insurance agency’s former suite.

Plaza Tire Service opens 70th store

Cape Girardeau-based Plaza Tire Service recently added a second location in Jonesboro, Arkansas. It is the 70th store in the tire and automotive service chain.

Located at 4301 E. Johnson Avenue in Jonesboro, the 8,700 square foot store includes eight service bays and a large area for tire storage.

While the new store offers a variety of vehicle maintenance and repair services, its core business is tires. The store stocks approximately 2,000 tires with inventory continually replenished through the company’s warehouse and distribution center in Cape Girardeau.

Founded in 1963 by Vernon “Pee Wee” Rhodes, the company is owned today by his sons, Mark and Scott Rhodes. The company is ranked 18th on Modern Tire Dealer’s 2021 list of the nation’s top independent tire dealers.

Cape law firm relocates offices

The Cape Girardeau law firm of Layton & Southard LLC recently moved its offices to 2845 Professional Court. The firm was previously on the third floor of the Banterra Bank building 1650 N. Kingshighway.

The law firm’s telephone number and email addresses are unchanged.

Attorneys in the firm include John Layton, Stephen Southard, Susan Tomlin, Megan Andrews, Shanna Surratt and Andrew Bauman.

Sikeston receives $2 million industrial development grant

The City of Sikeston and the surrounding region will benefit from a $2 million grant announced recently by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA). The grant will be used to support development of Sikeston’s South Industrial Park.

The EDA funds will reportedly be combined with $657,000 in other federal funds and $236,700 in local funds and is expected to create 100 jobs and generate almost $30 million in private investments.

Beta version of SHO.ai brand management platform available

Cape Girardeau-based brand asset platform management firm SHO.ai has launched a free beta version of its all-encompassing brand management platform.

According to the social media post, launching a free version of the company’s platform has been a core priority for SHO.ai. The platform allows organizations to house their brand identity, including logos, color typography, assets and more, in one place.

The beta platform can be accessed at www.myshow.ai/signup.

Jackson farmers elected to represent at angus meeting

Jackson cattle farmer Brian Meier has been elected to serve as a delegate to the 138th American Angus Association Convention of Delegates, while his father, Paul “Butch” Meier, was elected to serve as an alternate to the event set for Nov. 8 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The father-son cattlemen are longtime members of the American Angus Association, headquartered in St. Joseph, Missouri, and were elected by other cattle breeders in Missouri to represent them at the association’s annual delegates convention.

The American Angus Association represents nearly 25,000 members in the United States, Canada and several other nations.

Jackson chamber moves into former bank building

After more than 35 years in uptown Jackson, the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce has moved into the former First Missouri State Bank branch at 1846 E. Jackson Boulevard. The move took place in late September.

The chamber has operated out of the former Jackson Post Office building, at the corner of East Main and South Hope streets, since 1984. The organization sold the building in April, but remained in the building under a month-to-month lease arrangement.

“The new location gives us an opportunity to grow,” said chamber president Brian Gerau. “We’ve been a little land locked at our current location, but we have plans and strategies for growth in the next few months.”

The former First Missouri State Bank building was constructed in 1991 and will give the chamber more space and parking than it currently has. “We wanted to have higher visibility, easier parking and better access,” Gerau said. “We’d also like to turn it into more of a welcome center as well. That’s a long-term goal.”

Carvana coming to Jackson

Carvana, which touts itself as the company that introduced the “car vending machine,” is coming to Jackson.

The pre-owned e-commerce car dealership, based in Tempe, Arizona, plans to occupy the former Brennecke Chevrolet building at 700 E. Jackson Boulevard, which is still owned by the Brennecke family.

Businesses move to location on North Kingshighway

A pair of businesses that shared office space in the Marquette Tower on Broadway — OnBoard and Media Leaf — have relocated their operations to a larger space on 879 N. Kingshighway in a space formerly occupied by Ochs Rent A Car.

The move took place in late September.

OnBoard provides human resources and employee recruitment services and is owned and operated by Megan Frank.

The new location will provide OnBoard and Media Leaf with about 1,200 square feet of office space, substantially more than they occupied in the Marquette Tower.

Health care system announces wage hike

Saint Francis Healthcare System has announced it will raise its minimum hourly wage to $15. The wage adjustment was scheduled to go into effect Oct. 24 and affects more than 600 Saint Francis employees, or 22% of the health care system’s workforce.

The wage increase, according to Saint Francis president and CEO Maryann Reese, is in keeping with the health care system’s Catholic identity to affirm the human dignity of its employees and is not based on external market forces.

Governor endorses funding for rural broadband expansion

High-speed internet connectivity efforts in rural Missouri will get a boost from more than $400 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding intended to boost broadband access, adoption and assistance statewide.

“Investing in our broadband infrastructure is critical to unlocking our full economic potential in this state and will serve Missourians for generations to come,” Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said in announcing the funding in September. “We expect this investment to increase broadband internet connectivity and access in every corner of the state for hundreds of thousands of Missourians.”

That connectivity, he said, will support a variety of the state’s economic sectors including education, health care, agriculture and business in general.

The state’s broadband expansion plan has been developed through a multi-agency effort to address a diverse range of broadband connectivity challenges and will be presented to the Missouri General Assembly in January for appropriation.

In addition to the $400 million plan, the Missouri Department of Economic Development has also submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Infrastructure Program, requesting an additional $56 million for broadband deployment. If approved by NTIA, this funding could support almost 20 projects, connecting more than 17,000 households, businesses, and others.