BusinessMay 10, 2023
Tourism and new construction driving growth
Drive by the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex nearly any weekend and you’ll find a sea of cars. Inside it’s full of athletes, parents and coaches competing in tournaments or practicing. Everything from cheer camps to volleyball, basketball and soccer tournaments to batting cages for baseball players. And while the weekends are busy, the facility is also being used during the week for a variety of activities...
Drive by the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex nearly any weekend and you’ll find a sea of cars. Inside it’s full of athletes, parents and coaches competing in tournaments or practicing. Everything from cheer camps to volleyball, basketball and soccer tournaments to batting cages for baseball players. And while the weekends are busy, the facility is also being used during the week for a variety of activities.
It’s one of the city’s crown jewels, drawing people to the region for overnight stays where they stay in hotels, patronize local restaurants and shop at retail establishments. Brenda Newbern, executive director of VisitCape, said the facility is so heavily used on the weekends they are booking it well into the future, in addition to scheduling midweek tournaments and other nontraditional activities when the space is available.
“We just worked with a promoter. He’s actually going to do a midweek tournament in June. Brand new guy. ... That’s awesome. That just tells you where we’re at in the youth sports arena,” Newbern recently told B Magazine.
They’re also looking at a more diverse lineup of sports beyond basketball, soccer and volleyball. Newbern gave the example of an upcoming billiards tournament.
The tourism director said Cape Girardeau navigated the pandemic well when it came to events. With surrounding areas like St. Louis and Illinois on lockdown, Cape Girardeau stayed open for business but did so in a safe manner.
That approach saved the city’s sale tax base, she said, particularly on the tourism side with hotels and restaurants. Newbern noted the city felt the negative impact of the pandemic but “never bottomed out like other places did” and recovered quickly.
“We never went to a base where we were really suffering in the tourism arena, which helped with the hotel-motel taxes that impact everybody,” she said. “Because when the tournaments come in, they do everything from eating, buying gas, buying clothes. You would see if the stores were open, the kids were at Academy Sports for sure, because I saw some of them even during the COVID periods when stores were open and allowing people in.”
Newbern and Parks and Recreation staff would go to tournaments during this time to encourage mask wearing, and some tournament organizers would hire extra staff to help with cleaning. Anything to keep people safe and Cape Girardeau open for business.
While the SportsPlex certainly gets regional attention from neighboring towns and states, it’s also attracting those from several states away. Newbern said she attended a conference recently and spoke with a lady from Denver, Colorado, who brought her daughter to Cape Girardeau for a volleyball tournament.
Hotel-motel/restaurant receipts
While the anecdotal evidence would indicate the increased traffic is an economic boon for the city, the numbers confirm it.
The Southeast Missourian reported in February that hotel-motel and restaurant tax receipts were up substantially in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
The total amount of the state’s 7.5% tax on hotel rooms in Cape Girardeau exceeded $1 million in the calendar year, according to the story. That’s a 13% increase over 2021, which was the next highest figure over the previous five years.
While inflation is part of the figure, John Echimovich, vice president of operations for MidAmerica Hotels, told the Southeast Missourian the rate of rooms rented went up from 5% to 6% between 2021 and 2022.
Meanwhile, restaurant tax receipts grew 9% in 2022 over the previous year.
In December, the Southeast Missourian reported that Cape Girardeau County set a new record for sales tax revenue. The county reached $9 million in sale tax receipts for the first time. The final number totaled $9,199,252.66. This came only a year after hitting a then-record $8 million. The 2022 total was an 8.6% increase over 2021.
Three new hotels
Cape Girardeau is seeing an influx of new hotels along with new restaurants to accommodate its growing sports tourism scene, not to mention the other events that come to town.
Century Casino is in the midst of building a six-story, 69-room hotel on its casino property. The $26 million hotel is scheduled to open in early 2024.
Fairfield Inn & Suites is under construction near Exit 96 off Interstate 55 near the former Zaxby’s Restaurant. The 103-room, four-story hotel is expected to open later this year or in early 2024. It will be operated by Heritage Hospitality Management LLC, which is owned by the Rhodes and Maurer families.
Midamerica Hotels Corp. will bring a Tru by Hilton hotel to town, using land in front of the SportPlex. Officials expect to break ground on the 92-room hotel this spring and open in 2024.
Newbern said Cape Girardeau certainly needs more rooms on the weekend. It’s not uncommon for visitors to stay in Jackson, Sikeston, Perryville, Illinois and points beyond for events in Cape Girardeau. That’s certainly a benefit to those communities, and Newbern said many of the people she connects with are not opposed to staying a few miles away because they’re enjoying a good experience. Still, it remains an opportunity as tourism continues to grow.
She said the challenge is to build the business travel, other events and midweek tournaments, so the hotels can continue to succeed. Weekend business alone is not enough to sustain them, she said.
Newbern noted a Lewis and Clark event that was scheduled, which would lead to 40 hotel rooms being booked. The General Federation of Women’s Clubs was also on the docket. An electric co-op association recently held their conference in Cape. And Twisted Cat Outdoors is returning for their fishing tournament.
Most of Cape Girardeau’s hotels lack meeting space, with the exception of the Drury Plaza. With the addition of the casino hotel, that will give Cape Girardeau two hotels with attached meeting space. Newbern said that’s important for bringing certain events to town.
Other tourism draws
While the SportsPlex and other Parks and Recreation facilities such as the Shawnee Park Sports Complex with its eight baseball and softball fields continue to be a major draw, those are not the only tourist attractions.
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The Cape Catfish are returning this summer for their fifth season. The Prospect League team will play 60 games over two months, including 30 home games at Capaha Field. Those games not only provide local entertainment but will also fill hotel rooms during the summer months.
Special to Cape Girardeau this summer is the Babe Ruth Baseball World Series for boys 16 to 18 years old. The international tournament features 20 teams from across the United States and several countries. Among the teams committed to play: Puerto Rico, Aruba, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, China MLB, Netherlands and Mexico.
Charleston Fighting Squirrels manager Michael Minner, whose team will play in the tournament and is organizing it, says according to the Babe Ruth organization, the week-long event should have an economic impact on Cape Girardeau of $2.5 to $3.5 million.
Other areas of progress
Southeast Missouri State University continues to be a driving force for economic activity both in terms of overall university impact and specifically through its sports programs. Every Redhawks sports team has won a conference or national championship in the last four years. The men’s basketball program is also coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 23 years.
Progress on the Houck complex continues, and the university expects to have Phase I complete before the start of the fall semester. The university’s board of governors approved a bid in August 2022 of $15,978,100 for “a new transformation multiuse complex.”
The stadium, while important for the Redhawks athletics teams, will also support several academic programs.
In comments to the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce last year, Dr. Carlos Vargas said the Houck complex project “would add $31 million to the economy including the construction spending impact as well as the long-term visitor spending impact which is projected to increase by nearly a quarter million dollars per year.”
Houck was not the only major construction project this year.
SoutheastHEALTH opened its new Southeast Center for Integrated Health Services campus in January. The $25 million 70,000-square-foot center is home to Southeast Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Center, Southeast Women’s Integrated Health and Southeast Breast Health.
This was Phase 2 of a $125 million project for SoutheastHEALTH, which also included $50 million to renovate the Emergency Services Department, convert semiprivate rooms to private rooms and renovate the Administrative Clinical Building.
SoutheastHEALTH is also in the midst of a merger with St. Louis-based Mercy. The organization signed a letter of intent earlier this year with the partnership scheduled to be finalized in the fall.
On the city government front, Cape Girardeau broke ground on a new 20,000-foot airport terminal. The project is primarily funded with federal dollars. The $12 million project includes $10 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Securities Act. The balance comes from the city’s Capital Improvement Sales Tax. The terminal should be completed by June 2024.
“The new terminal is designed to allow for expansion of both the airline operations, baggage claim and more hold space as the airport continues to grow,” Airport manager Katrina Amos told the Southeast Missourian at the recent groundbreaking. “And that is our goal, to continue to improve upon services and one day provide additional destinations for our region.”
Jackson development
Jackson has had its own development in the last year both in public infrastructure and private investment.
In August, voters approved a $10.1 million bond issue that would upgrade the city’s 33-year-old wastewater treatment plant. The project would also expand sewerage capacity.
Work has begun to remodel the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson, which will also include an expansion and upgrade of the county’s jail. Penzel-Trainor won the bid for the project, which is estimated to total $45.5 million and be completed by the end of 2024.
Southeast Missouri Food Bank is now operating an 18,500-square-foot satellite location at 4536 E. Jackson Blvd. in Jackson. The new facility is in addition to its 72,000-square-foot warehouse in Sikeston, Missouri. Food Bank president and CEO Joey Keys told the Southeast Missourian they are now distributing 14 million pounds of food, up from 10 million pounds just five or six years ago.
And maybe the most exciting news for the people of Jackson — if based solely on community reaction and online engagement — is that supermarket chain ALDI is coming to town. The grocery store has started site work on a 21,682-square-foot facility that will be located at 2502 E. Jackson Blvd. The job site superintendent told the Southeast Missourian they expect the project to be complete by mid-to-late September.
Closing thoughts
Cape Girardeau County attracted $200 million in tourism dollars during fiscal year 2021, according to the Missouri Department of Tourism. Brenda Newbern is thankful for the success but said it’s important to keep pushing.
“You cannot sit back and think it’s going to [continue to] happen,” she said.
It’s a statement that applies to tourism but also to other areas of business. Newbern also made another comment that translates beyond tourism: Experience drives future business.
She said Cape Girardeau is in the top 100 (in a study that includes millions of locations) when it comes to a tourism sentiment study that ranks communities based on comments received.
“We can bring them to town and we can bring groups to town, but their experience that they have here depends on all the people that they meet,” the tourism director said. “That’s what’s key to me is, and I think we need to realize that it’s about how we treat all of our guests. And you may not know who that is when you’re standing at the gas pump. You may not know who that is when they walk into your restaurant or into your store if they’re shopping. You don’t know who that is, but it can be a visitor that’s going to carry the feelings that they had about Cape Girardeau based on how we treat them.”
Treat others as you would want to be treated. It’s a good message for life and business.
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