I-55 project 'biggest opportunity' for retail since mall, Cape mayor says

By fall 2008, a new $10.8 million interchange off of Interstate 55 bordering Cape Girardeau and Jackson will be complete. City officials believe it will be the staging point for residential and commercial growth by drawing off some of the 22,000 cars zooming by on the interstate daily. That traffic will keep cash registers ringing.

"This presents probably the biggest opportunity for a retail development that Cape Girardeau has seen since the mall," said Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson, referring to West Park Mall. "And the challenging thing is that it probably is going to require some of the same aggressive and forward thinking it did all those years back."

The project dates back 12 years when the city of Jackson, led by newly elected Mayor Paul Sander, petitioned the Missouri Department of Transportation to help Jackson drivers find a better way to access I-55. MoDOT initially offered to pay for 25 percent of the project, later upped the offer to 50 percent and finally was so impressed by local cooperation the agency lobbied for the entire project to be funded by the Federal Highway Trust Fund.

Today, said Sander, the interchange is still the only project in MoDOT's history with four partners: Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Cape Girardeau County and Southeast Missouri State University.

"This is kind of a historic storyline because of the cooperation and amount of meetings that went into this," Sander said.

All parties are already making plans to capitalize on the interchange once it is complete.

Cape Girardeau will start work in June on a $3.13 million project to extend LaSalle Avenue 2,000 feet from the interstate to connect with County Road 618. The city also moving ahead to find funding for Technology Park Drive, which would connect the interchange with Center Junction, the interchange to the south on I-55.

Jackson is extending East Main Street three-fourths of a mile to connect with I-55 and is laying the groundwork for expanded commercial and residential development around Oak Hill Road there.

Southeast Missouri State University, which owns 400 acres in three of the four quadrants surrounding the interchange, recently signed a contract with THF Realty of St. Louis to manage the property closest to the interchange (the fourth quadrant is owned by Earl Norman). THF manages 105 properties in 23 states.

As early as spring 2009

Tentative plans call for one-third of the acreage to be occupied by big box-style retail businesses opening as early as spring 2009. The residential area would be southeast of the commercial area and will have a mixture of single-family homes and townhouses. Homes are projected to range from $200,000 to $300,000, and neighborhoods will be walkable with common areas like the proposed LaSalle Park Square.

Knudtson applauds Southeast's foresight in handing over a measure of control to THF. "The No. 1 indicator that this will move quickly is the university's willingness to partner with the developer on this. The university is in the education business, and if they would have just maintained ownership of those three corners and developed them as their time would allow, things would just be happening a lot slower," he said.

Wayne Smith, vice president of university advancement, said bringing THF to the table is a coup for the university and Southeast Missouri. "They have the relationships, the competency and the wherewithal, and we have none of that. We're a university, and we know our limitations," he said.

Smith foresees the area as a mixed-use development with technology, retail and residence elements sitting side by side.

He predicts the retail will generate $175 million to $225 million in incremental sales, which would mean $6.5 to $8.5 million in sales tax revenue for the city.

THF's experience and motivation to attract retail stores is a large reason why they were hired, Smith said. "They saw retail as being the first engine that drives everything out there," he said. Other firms, Smith said, thought the area had enough retail already, THF did a study showing the "big box" stores in Cape Girardeau are doing a thriving business and many are looking to expand.

"What they're proposing is a state-of-the-art development with a retail, residential and technology component that's going to build out this area significantly quicker than any of us thought possible," Knudtson said, adding, "Every time I get off the phone I get chills running down my back because of the vision they have for the area."

One phenomenon Jackson and Cape Girardeau hope to avoid is the competition for sales tax dollars that goes on in other cities, often described as a "race to the bottom" with each side trying to beat the other with incentives and tax breaks.

Sander said he understands Cape Girardeau will get the lion's share of retail and industry because it has more open space on its side of the border. "We don't have quite the room that they do," he said. "From my view point of view this is a two-run homer for Jackson and a grand slam for Cape."

But Sander also said he hopes to lure some retail and industry to Jackson's side of the border. He's heard discussion of a shared sales tax option that would split sales tax receipts in the area between Jackson and Cape Girardeau.

"That would eliminate even the thought of competing. I think it's certainly worth looking into and worth discussing," Sander said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245