Business Briefs

CROSS TRAILS ADDS TO CAPE GIRARDEAU FOOTPRINT

Cross Trails Medical Center, 408 S. Broadview St. in Cape Girardeau, is erecting a second building nearby.

Cross Trails, designated a federally qualified health center and community health canter, is constructing an 11,300-square-foot structure, now in the framing stage, just across the road at 2430 Golden St.

The new structure, which went under construction six months ago, is projected to be completed in April and will house Cross Trails’ mental health and diabetes services, plus provide office space for a licensed clinical social worker, CEO Ron Camp said.

SOUTHERN BANK

BUYS CITIZENS

Southern Missouri Bancorp Inc., based in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, for the second time in five years, has acquired another bank.

Southern Missouri Bancorp, parent of Southern Bank, said it has bought Citizens Bancshares, parent of Citizens Bank and Trust Company, for stock and cash.

Citizens has 14 locations, none in Southeast Missouri.

Southern currently has 40 Missouri locations, including five in Poplar Bluff, two each in Cape Girardeau and Dexter, and single branches in Jackson, Advance and Sikeston.

In 2017, Southern Missouri Bancorp purchased Tennecorp, the parent firm of Capaha Bank.

DAVISON NAMED PERMANENT CHIEF OF SAINT FRANCIS

Justin Davison saw the “interim” tag removed Sept. 14 from his role as president and CEO of the Roman Catholic hospital system based in Cape Girardeau.

Davison was named in February to follow Maryann Reese, who resigned after having served since 2017.

Davison, who has 18 years leadership experience in a variety of hospitals and health care systems, joined Saint Francis Healthcare System in 2019.

ENTERPRISE BANK HIRES JANSEN WITH PLANS TO EXPAND IN SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

St. Louis-headquartered Enterprise Bank & Trust has announced Janet Jansen will lead the bank’s expansion in Cape Girardeau and other future locations in Southeast Missouri.

Jansen, who will serve as senior vice president, has more than two decades of industry experience.

The bank, which has a location at 14 N. Jackson St. in Perryville, Missouri, has a total of 42 branches in Missouri, Arizona, California, Kansas, Nevada and New Mexico.

CHANGE OF VENUE FOR KASTEN

Kasten, founded in 1895, manufacturing clay face brick and diversifying in the intervening 127 years to a variety of products and services. Kasten told the Southeast Missourian it has consolidated its Cape Girardeau location into its operations in Jackson at 713 Kasten Drive.

The Cape Girardeau location at 345 S. Kingshighway will be transformed into Kasten Academy and Training Center.

Kasten also has locations in Bonne Terre, Missouri, and Carbondale, Illinois.

CAPE’S TOWN PLAZA

WITH NEW TENANT

Buddy’s Home Furnishings, a Florida-based rent-to-own retailer specializing in furniture, appliances and electronics, plans to open a 7,500-square-foot store in Cape Girardeau’s Town Plaza Shopping Center at 2136 William St. by mid-to-late October.

Buddy’s, with more than 300 locations nationwide, will occupy the site vacated by Deal Bins when it closed in April.

The company, established in 1961, already has Southeast Missouri stores in Caruthersville, Dexter, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston.

MISSOURI STUDENT DEBT

RANKING

Student debt in Missouri on average ranks at No. 25 among U.S. states, according to stacker.com in its analysis of Federal Reserve of New York data.

In August, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for individuals with incomes below $125,000.

Missouri has 829,100 borrowers who owe an average of $35,095 each, good for the middle of the pack of all the states.

Before the presidential directive, the Show Me State had already been offering student loan forgiveness to some employees of government agencies or not-for-profit organizations.

REPORTED MISSOURI

GAS TAX BENEFITS

Missouri Department of Transportation released information on the benefits of the current state motor fuels tax and other financial information related to roads and bridges.

• Each additional cent of state fuel tax collected by Missouri Department of Revenue results in approximately $27.8 million for MoDOT and $11.8 million for cities and counties.

The breakdown is 3.3 cents for cities; 2.75 cents for counties; 15.95 cents for MoDOT.

As of July 1, the state’s motor fuels tax is 22 cents per gallon.

• Cost to resurface one lane of a major Missouri highway is $230,000 per mile; cost to resurface one lane of a minor state highway is $37,000 per mile; cost to resurface one lane of an interstate highway within Missouri boundaries is $260,000 per mile.

• Annual snow removal costs on state roads and bridges: $50 million.

• Litter pickup cost (five-year average): $6.2 million.

• Mowing cost (five-year average): $21.6 million.

• Missouri ranks No. 48 in the nation in revenue per mile for roads.

• Missouri has 10,387 bridges and culverts.

• Number of major bridges, with spans of at least 1,000 feet: 204.

FORECLOSURES TICK UP

SHARPLY IN SHOW ME STATE

Home foreclosures in Missouri went up nearly 121% in the first half of the year compared to the first six months of 2021, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, a property and real estate statistics provider.

In practical terms, one of every 1,073 Show Me State homes went into foreclosure, 23rd highest in the U.S., reported Irvine, California-based ATTOM.

The nation’s worst foreclosure rate, one of every 385 homes, is in Illinois. The best rate, one in every 9,068 homes, is in South Dakota.

According to a five-year U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, 61.2% of Missouri homeowners are paying down a mortgage.

The state’s median home value, ATTOM said, is $163,600. Nationally, the median home value is $229,800.

CENTURY CASINO

ATTENDANCE REVEALS

UP-AND-DOWN PATTERN

Century Casino Cape Girardeau had 95,268 admissions in July, a 9% drop from 104,293 in the same month a year earlier, according to Fiscal 2023 statistics culled from Missouri Gaming Commission’s website.

All of the state’s 13 casinos experienced lower year-to-year turnstile traffic in July except River City in Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, whose admissions rose 6%.

On a monthly basis in Fiscal 2022, Century Casino posted strong gains in admissions from July to December 2021 compared to a year earlier, with five of those months seeing double-digit percentage increases in turnstile clicks. February 2022 also witnessed an 18% jump year-to-year.

Since March, however, monthly activity has been down from 9% to 15% compared to the same period in 2021.

One dollar of every Century Casino Cape Girardeau admission goes to the coffers of the City of Cape Girardeau, Century’s “docking city,” as spelled out in state law.

Under the original development agreement struck before the casino opened a decade ago, Cape Girardeau County and the cities of Jackson and Scott City also received a portion of casino revenue.

On May 26, Century Casino broke ground for a $26 million, nine-story hotel to hold 75 to 80 rooms on its current site.

PROPERTY FOR SALE IN CAPE GIRARDEAU’S DOCTORS’ PARK

The property at No. 61 Doctors’ Park on the western side of Cape Girardeau, at one time occupied by Aureus Health Services, was put on the market in mid-September.

Asking price for the 5,126-square-foot structure, at the corner of Mount Auburn Road and Doctors’ Park entrance D, is $420,000.

Doctors’ Park medical complex opened in June 1971 after a group of local doctors, including the late Charles P. McGinty, pioneered the idea for multi-disciplinary care on 20 acres of farmland.

As of 2022, Doctors’ Park has 70 tenants in 32 buildings on nearly 80 acres.

A Southeast Missourian story written last year on the occasion of Doctors’ Park’s 50th anniversary, said the following: “What the future holds for the complex is less certain as local hospitals continue to build their own facilities, many of which are contiguous to their own campuses. Still, the hospitals use space within Doctors´ Park as do other independent medical providers.”