STRICTLY BUSINESS: AREA, STATE BUILDING TOTALS UP

Two signs reveal the progress of Albertson's Inc. in Cape Girardeau:

"Coming Soon: Express Gas & Food To Go."

"Coming Soon: Albertson's Food & Drug."

More details can be found at the Cape Girardeau Division of Inspection Services offices, where permits have been issued for Albertson's Grocery Center and Albertson's Express.

Albertson's Grocery, a 61,000-square-foot food center, and Albertson's Express, a convenience store operation, will be on land at Kingshighway and Independence, with entrances from the two streets.

Cost of construction will top the $3 million mark. Permits were issued for $2,863,000 for the food center, and $315,100 for the convenience store.

Albertson's, which has more than 2,400 stores in 38 states, with sales of more than $16 billion annually, will employ about 150 people at its newest site.

The site -- the former Wolohan Lumber Co. and Pollack properties -- consist of more than seven acres.

Many agencies had worked to get site approval to progress to this point, including chamber officials; Mitch Robinson, Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association director; Scott Meyer, district engineer with MoDOT; and city staff members.

Albertson's was founded in 1939 by Joe Albertson, as a small grocery in Boise, Idaho. The company, still headquartered in Boise, has grown to more than 100,000 employees. The Cape Albertson's Food Center will feature a full-line pharmacy and fresh bakery, as well as the free-standing convenience store.

Albertson's building permit was one of three that topped $2 million in Cape Girardeau in June. Others were a permit for residential care improvements at the Lutheran Home, 2825 Bloomfield Road, $2.6 million, and a structure for Cape Radiology, 70 Doctors' Park Circle, $2.5 million.

Commercial construction topped the permit list in June. Included on the list were permits for Blattner Steel, $300,000; Cape Auto & Paint, 377 S. Plaza, $228,000; ERB expansion, 1421 SW End Blvd., $160,000; and Eliase Ace Hardware, 1719, N. Kingshighway, $375,000.

With three residential building, one a two-family, and home improvements -- carport, basement, additions, swimming pools, storage sheds, etc., 46 permits were issued, worth more than $9 million.

Construction in Cape Girardeau is up from the midyear point last year. As of June 30, more than 200 permits had been issued worth $20, 635,000, up from 147 permits and $17,588,241 as of June 30, 1999.

New home permits, however, were down.

During the first six months of 1999, 44 single-family home permits were issued, and six multi-family permits were issued, worth $8,958,825.

Thirty-two single-family home permits and eight multi-family permits, including two for 12 apartments each, were issued through June 30. They were valued at $7,318,225.

Statewide construction

Statewide, construction figures were up 7 percent through May.

Construction through May was valued at $3.1 billion, up from the $2.9 billion through May last year, according to the F.W. Dodge Division of The McGraw-Hill Cos., an authority on the construction market.

Nonresidential construction during the first four months was down just a bit, $976 million this year, compared to $982 million a year ago. This includes commercial, manufacturing and other buildings not designed for shelter.

Residential construction through May was $1.4 billion, up 7 percent from the $1.2 billion totals of a year ago. Nonbuilding -- streets, highways, bridges, river and harbor developments, airports and a few other projects -- was up 17 percent, at $799 million, from the $681 million through May 1999.

And, nationally

Through the first five months, total construction on an unadjusted basis held steady with the same period a year ago. Residential building maintained a 6 percent lead over 1999, while the nonbuilding and nonresidential sectors showed declines of 3 percent and 4 percent.

Geographically, the Dodge Report said total construction was up 7 percent in the West and Midwest; up 7 percent in the South Atlantic, and down 7 percent in the South Central region.

Victoria's Secret to open

Victoria's Secret is here.

That "store for her that he loves" is in Westfield Shoppingtown West Park, and will officially open its doors Wednesday.

Victoria's Secret, a women's intimate apparel shop group that has swept the nation since it was founded a few short years ago, and was one of the most requested new stores for Westfield, will open at 10 a.m. Wednesday near the center court area.

Victoria's Secret is one of a number of companies owned and operated by Intimate Brands Inc., a specialty retailer of intimate apparel, beauty and personal care products through the Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works brands.

Victoria's Secret products are available through more than 850 lingerie stores and catalogs, including 16 stores in Missouri. Victoria's Secret also has outlets at shopping malls in Carbondale, Ill., and Paducah, Ky.