Lexington Avenue development underway

Construction on a new three-acre development is underway and is expected to culminate in three buildings that will be leased for a mix of office and commercial use.

The new development -- across Lexington Avenue from La Croix United Methodist Church -- is called Rivendell Court and is owned by Brad Haertling of River Realty and financial adviser Greg Deimund of Merrill Lynch.

The first 8,672-square-foot building is nearly completed, the owners told me in a conference call. They also said that two more buildings will be built in the coming months as tenants are lined up. They said they are working on deals for tenants in all the buildings, but that no leases had been signed yet.

"We're going to custom-build all the interiors of these buildings," Haertling said. "We'll build the building shells, meet with prospective tenants and see what their plans are for the floor layouts, and then we can finish the interior."

The building that's nearly completed is building B, and buildings A and C will be built on either side of the existing building. Building C will be closest to the Lexington Place entrance and will be 7,200 square feet. Building A will be the biggest building at 8,900 square feet.

One potential tenant has already shown interest in taking over all of building A, the men said. If the tenant decides to move forward, then the building could be finished and ready to be occupied in about a year, Deimund said.

In all, there could be 11 businesses in the buildings, Deimund said. Or more. Or less. It depends on what the tenant needs are. He envisions a mix of businesses like a deli or coffee shop, medical offices or professional offices for lawyers, insurance agents or real estate agents.

"We have 11,000 cars per day on average going by that location," Haertling said. "It's also not that far off from Kingshighway or even William. It's a good spot."

And special thanks should go out to my mother-in-law, who has asked me what is going into those buildings for two months. I should have answered her question sooner.

It's never nice to ignore your mother-in-law.

* Drury Hotel still on hold: Some of you have been asking about the 180-room Drury Hotel that has been in the works for Interstate 55 and Highway 74 for the last few years. There's still a sign announcing that the hotel is coming, but Drury Hotels spokesman Eric Strand responded to an e-mailed inquiry from me last week:

"In contrast to the relatively strong national demand for hotel rooms, occupancy for our Cape market hotels has trended down this year," Strand wrote. "The Drury Inn & Suites project is on hold until the fundamentals indicating the need for more hotel inventory in the market improve. When they do, we will be ready to start moving dirt."

Strand noted in the e-mail that Drury projects are underway in Cincinnati and Columbia, Ohio; Greenville, S.C.; Amarillo and San Antonio, Texas; O'Fallon, Ill.; in addition to the Drury Plaza Hotel in Chesterfield, Mo., which opened two weeks ago.

* eBay facilitator: Amila Ramanayake is opening a new store that will be part shipping outlet, part eBay drop-off store.

"People buy everything on eBay," he said. "They even buy rocks on eBay, but no one has anything like what I'm doing in this area yet."

The idea is that Ramanayake will basically help people sell items on eBay. Those wanting to sell on eBay can drop their items off at his store at 1131 N. Kingshighway and Ramanayake will act as a mediator between eBay and the seller, which he is licensed by eBay to do.

Once a customer brings the item in, Ramanayake will take pictures of the item and put it on the Web site. Once the item is sold to the highest bidder, Ramanayake ships the item, collects the money and gives it to the seller for a "small commission," he said. (It's between 20 and 30 percent of the final value.)

The store, called Ship-N-Go, will also be a place where items can be shipped via Federal Express and DHL.

"You see a lot of these eBay drop-off stores in metro areas," he said. "I thought people would like one here."

* Perryville paper has new publisher: The Perry County Republic Monitor published a story last week announcing that its publisher had resigned and a new one had been named.

Jim Beaver, who has been publisher since January 2005, accepted a job as advertising sales manager with the Suburban Journals in Jefferson County, the paper reported. Editor Katie Martin was named the new publisher.

Martin was the natural choice as his replacement, Beaver told the paper.

"Katie loves this newspaper and she loves this community," he said. "She will continue The Republic-Monitor's long tradition of serving Perry County."

* Cue & Brew: Lynn Shoemake says there's only one term to describe his new business at 470 S. Kingshighway: pool hall.

"That's what it's going to be, for lack of a better description," he said.

Shoemake said there will be darts and 12 pool tables in the 3,000-square-foot building just across the street of the Rhodes 101 Stop. Shoemake said he hopes to have the new pool hall open by mid-June.

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.