BUSINESS: APARTMENT COMPLEXES FUEL CONSTRUCTION PERMITS IN CAPE

Bob Evans Restaurant will open its doors early next month.

Willie Jack's may open in the near future.

Vicky Lynn's Old Time Soda Parlor could be operating soon.

Eating establishments and plenty of apartments are in the forecast for Cape Girardeau as the first year of the new millennium narrows down to its final two months.

The Cape Girardeau Inspection Services Division shows a total of more than 400 permits and $35.1 million, an average of more than $3.5 million and 40-plus building permits per month issued during the first 10 months of the first year.

That's a far cry from the 1999 construction record of $64.4 million, but 2000 construction totals, after starting slow, finished strong, with more than a third of the permit action over the past two months.

The city has passed the $40 million mark only five times in its construction history -- last year's $64.4 million; $49.7 million in 1998; $47.9 million in 1992; $47.6 million in 1996; and $44.3 million in 1995.

October slow

October wasn't a big month for permits -- only 21 were issued. But, it was a big month for big permits, totaling more than $3.2 million.

Over the past month, permits have been issued for a total of 45 units of apartments, to be constructed at the site of the former old St. Francis Hospital, at a cost of more than $1.8 million by The Phillips Cos. of Little Rock, Ark., which purchased the property in April 1999.

Earlier in the year, permits were acquired for four new 12-unit apartment complexes in the Pear Tree Court area, with values of $600,000 each. The Pear Tree Court apartment group will provide a total of 72 apartments. Vernon Rhodes, president of Plaza Tire Co., a 37-year-old business which has more than 36 stores in four states, heads the apartment-building group.

"We're pleased," said Terry D. Booker, director of the city's inspection services. "We've issued a lot of permits this year, and still have some things coming up."

Construction continues on some major projects -- Albertson's Grocery, at the intersection of Independence and Kingshighway, Schnucks Grocery expansion, 19 S. Kingshighway, and Bob Evans Restaurant.

Bob Evans Restaurant has set the date of Dec. 11 for opening, at its location near the Route K/Interstate 55 exit. Bob Evans Farms Inc., owns and operates 432 full-service family restaurants in 21 states under the Bob Evans and Owens Family Restaurant.

The annual permit totals do not include some nearby major commercial expansions -- Procter & Gamble's, near Fruitland, and BioKyowa expansions in Nash Road Industrial Park. The city's construction permits also do not include work on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, under construction across the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois.

Soda fountain

Shirley Hobbs will feel right at home when Vicky Lynn's Old Time Soda Parlor opens in the Paddle Wheel Plaza building in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Hobbs will be assisting her daughter in the operation of the old marble soda fountain planned for 5 N. Main.

"It'll be like turning the clock back," said Hobbs, who became an experienced hand at the soda fountain in the old F.W. Woolworth Store 49 years ago.

Shirley and her husband, Del Hobbs, attended old Washington School together in Cape Girardeau, married in 1951, and moved to California.

The Hobbs are back now.

After a 40-year-plus career as a district manager with a large grocery chain in the Western United States, Hobbs and his wife are into antiques, which included the antique marble soda fountain which will be installed in the giant Paddle Wheel structure, which reaches from Main Street through the entire block, which also opens on Spanish Street.

The soda fountain is part of "new look" for the monstrous two-level building which once housed JCPenney's in downtown Cape Girardeau. The building also houses Brick Street Gallery Art Antiques and Creative Designs, and a number of antique and collectible operations, which recently moved from Madder Rose Antique Mall, which closed operations Oct. 31.

Evelyn Boardman, who operated the mall three years before opening a smaller store, at 40 N. Main., where she operates Madder Rose Accents and Antiques.

That leaves the former Woolworth building at 1 N. Main empty, but maybe not for long.

Robert LaGore, of Paducah, Ky., is interested in the building for a Willie Jacks Restaurant.

"We'd like to put in a restaurant and entertainment center in the structure," said LaGore, who owns Fast Eddies Restaurant at Metropolis, Ill., and is a partner in Fast Eddies Restaurants in Evansville and Terre Haute, Ind.