Former Key's Music could be sold

Restaurateur Su Hill's biggest fear has nothing to do with heights or being buried alive. It's this: That rumors will get started that her popular Cape Girardeau restaurant Saffron is closing down.

"That's what I'm scared of the most," Hill said. "But it's not closing and I'm not selling it. I'm not going anywhere."

Not that everything on Su Hill's plate is going according to plan. It's not. There's a "for sale" sign on her building -- the former Key's Music Store -- at Broadway and Spanish Street, which she bought nearly two years ago for another restaurant.

Now, the new restaurant project is on hold, Hill said, and she's conflicted about selling the building, which is the former Key's Music Store.

"I'm considering my options right now," Hill said. "I love that building, but I'd sell it if the price is right."

Adding to the situation is that her Sikeston project, Joseph's Fine Steak J.'s Martini Bar, isn't going as well as planned either. Hill calls Sikeston's market "soft," and she's having trouble getting good help to staff the restaurant. That's why, as of July 1, she's changed it from a full-time restaurant to a banquet center and conference facility.

"It's not what I expected," Hill said of Joseph's. "I'm continuously having labor problems."

So Hill said she has too much on her plate -- that pun again -- to focus on the downtown Cape Girardeau building right now. Hence, the "for sale" sign.

"It's just not a good time for that right now," she said. "Just make sure that people know I'm not going to close Saffron."

* Cape school bus provider opens facility: Laidlaw Education Services, which will be Cape Girardeau School District's newest bus provider, has located its Cape terminal facility at 3365 E. Outer Road, near Interstate 55 and Nash Road. Tom Kelsey, commercial broker with Lorimont Place Ltd. who handled the multiyear lease transaction, said the 5,600-square-foot facility would house all of Laidlaw's local operations here, including regional offices complete with a repair and maintenance shop.

Kelsey said the location owned by Moriah Investments Inc. would also provide a secure fenced yard area to park 25 to 30 of the companies' buses.

Laidlaw, based in Naperville, Ill., provides more than 1,000 school districts nationwide with transportation services and more than 45,000 employees. Laidlaw, secured a three-year contract with a two-year renewal option with the school district and successfully outbid the previous bus provider, First Student for bus services back in May. They are the largest private contractor of student transportation services in North America and transport more than 2 million students to and from school every day. It was uncertain how many new jobs the transportation company would provide locally.

* Grand give-a-way: Normally I don't feature promotions here in Biz Buzz. But this one I think is grand enough to warrant it -- plus, it might tie up traffic, if Ashley Furniture owner's Kirk Barton comes close to the mark.

From Wednesday through July 29, people can sign up at Ashley's Furniture in Jackson to be eligible for a total of $20,000 in furniture that will be given away over the next three Saturdays. Barton stresses those who are eligible must be present to win.

And they can buy any furniture from the store they want.

"They can come in and make their wish list," he said.

About the traffic, at an Ashley's Furniture Store in California, so many people attended, it shut down a major interstate coming into the store, he said.

"I don't know if we can do that in a smaller market, but we can make an impression with it," Barton said. "The store in Jackson is still fairly new. A lot of people probably haven't been there yet. This is a way to get them to come out and see what we've got."

On the first Saturday at 2 p.m., the winner will get $2,500 in furniture. On July 22, at 2 p.m., they will give away another $2,500 in furniture and on July 29, Ashley Furniture will give away $5,000 in furniture.

* For businessmen, prime time is crime time: A new study on how businessmen are portrayed by Hollywood shows that an anti-business agenda dominates entertainment television. According to a study I've seen, the numbers show that out of 39 NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX episodes that included plots or characters relevant to business, 77 percent cast businessmen in a negative light. (Shocking, right?)

The study was conducted by the Business & Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center. BMI analyst Charles Simpson reports in a recent op-ed, that "during the two sweeps months, you were five times more likely to be kidnapped or murdered at the hands of a businessman than terrorists, gangs, or even the mob."

Here's another funny -- yet telling line -- "It's enough to convince the risk-averse to join the Peace Corps. After all, they'd be safer in Darfur than in an office space."

Scott Moyers is the business editor of the Southeast Missourian. Send your comments, business news, information or questions to "Biz Buzz," 301 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699, or e-mail them to smoyers@semissourian.com or call (573) 335-6611, extension 137.