STRICTLY BUSINESS: SIKESTON, TOWN IN GROWING PATTERN

Sikeston is on the grow.

Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream and Atlas Cold Storage will hold grand-opening ceremonies on Thursday for their new facilities in the Sikeston Business and Technology Park.

Good Humor-Breyers, which announced a $34 million expansion program more than a year ago, will dedicate its new 200,000-square-foot building.

Atlas Cold Storage, built adjacent to the new Good Humor-Breyers ice cream products building, was actually the first new business to open in new industrial park, in February.

Atlas is part of the Spire Group, which operates a number of refrigerated warehouses in the United States, including a warehouse at the Good Humor-Breyers plant at Green Bay, Wis.

Good Humor-Breyers and Spire Freezers are the first two commitments for the city's new industrial park, which became available early in 1996 when the city purchased more than 600 acres along Highway 61 north of Sikeston.

Heritage American Homes, with more than 180 employees, produces 1 2/3 homes a day in the facility in the first Sikeston Industrial Park, on the west side of town.

There's more.

Bids will be sought in October to build a Sikeston Area Higher Education Center, which will operate through a partnership between Southeast Missouri State University and Three Rivers Community College.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (Mo-DOT) will relocate its regional headquarters to the industrial park as part of a transaction with Novus Company of St. Louis that will result in a business development at one of Sikeston's busy intersections, Malone and Main streets.

"A lot of things are happening at Sikeston," said William O. Green of the Sikeston Department of Economic Development. ""We're still talking to a lot of people interested in our area."

Sikeston, a city of 19,000 population -- about 24,000 counting Minor and other areas within a five-mile radius -- is also home to Galaxy Cablevision, a national cable vision company, and the Kenneth Storey supermarket chain, which includes more than 125 grocery stores; Missouri Delta Medical Center, the city's largest employer; and other industries that provide up to 100 or more employees.

"The word is getting out that we're a good community with some great companies," said Green. "A lot of the credit for this goes to Mitch Robinson and other folks at Cape Girardeau."

Robinson is the executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Recruitment Association.

Phil Tate, director of the business expansion and attraction group, Missouri Department of Economic Development, who was in Cape Girardeau recently when Biokyowa announced its new food supplement plant for that area, commented on Sikeston.

"Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and the entire Southeast Missouri have been among the top industrial expansion areas in the state the past two years," said Tate.

He was referring to announcements by Procter & Gamble ($350 million); Biokyowa (more than 90 million) in Cape Girardeau; Good Humor-Breyers ($35 million); American Heritage Homes and Atlas Storage at Sikeston); Noranda Aluminum ($35 million expansion) at New Madrid; and the a new power plant ($100 million) in the Bootheel area near Kennett); among others.

"We have a lot of going for us," said Steve Borgsmiller, who has served as Sikeston city manager the past seven years. "We have good access to interstate highway transportation -- Interstate 57 intersects with Interstate 55 -- and we have good access to river ports."

Borgsmiller adds that the area has an "employable work force."

"We have low unemployment, but there are still some available employees in the area," he said. "We're excited aboaut what is happening in our area."

Meanwhile, a number of companies are interested in the Sikeston area.

One of the latest developments is that of Novus Development Co., a St. Louis development firm.

"Novus has purchased 20 acres in the industrial park," said Green. "A land swap deal will result in a new site for MoDOT, and a new retail shopping center at the corner of Main and Malone."

Novus, based in Kirkwood, will donate 13.6 acres of its industrial park land to MoDOT, which will start building a new maintenance building there. Novus will construct a new administration building for MoDOT on the remaining 6.4 acres in the park.

When the administrative building is completed, said Green, Novus will swap it for the transportation department's current headquarters, where Novus will develop a grocery store and retail shopping center.

This is a win-win situation for the city, said Borgsmiller, adding that the development of the grocery-retail center would allow an increase in Sikeston's sale tax base.

The new $4.5 million, 33,000-square-foot higher education center will be in the industrial park, at U.S. 61 and Rout ZZ.

The building will house classrooms, technology labs and an interactive television area.

Construction is expected to begin next fall, with an opening date in fall 1999. The center is being financed through a $1.5 million appropriation last year from the Missouri General Assembly and a quarter-cent sales tax approved by Sikeston voters in April.

Classes are already being held in a renovated bank building in Sikeston.

Heritage American Homes came into being last year, when Patriot Homes Inc. of Elkhart, Ind., entered a joint venture agreement with Dallas-based Holigan Homes, forming the new company.

Heritage American Homes L.P. builds all-drywall sectional HUD homes and BOCA modular homes, including ranch, Cape Cod and two-story models, ranging in size from 1,000 to 2,000 square feet.

The Sikeston plant opened in an existing 125,000-square-foot building, the old MRM building in west Sikeston. The structure on 18 acres has been expanded.

B. Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.