Owner hopes renovation will help clean up neighborhood

In the 1880s, Cape Girardeau merchant J.F. Schwepker built a large two-story brick home at the corner of Lorimier and Good Hope streets.

Over the years, the house has seen good and bad. When most recently occupied, the home had been broken up into eight small apartments, some not much bigger than a closet.

Now, it is going through another transformation, one owner Jason Coalter hopes will set the tone for other landlords in the area immediately adjacent to the River Campus and in line with ideas promoted when Cape Girardeau was chosen as a DREAM Initiative city.

"It was an old eight-unit with efficiency apartments and a bunch of alcoholics and some prostitution run out of it," he said. "We were just trying to help clean up the area. We bought the building and kicked everybody out of it. That was about three years ago, maybe longer.

"Now that the River Campus is there, we are getting more aggressive on renovation," he said.

When the DREAM Initiative was announced, part of the talk was about upgrading the housing near the River Campus to make it more attractive to students and professors. Coalter's efforts are some of the first signs that is happening.

Workers are gutting the interior of the building, taking out walls and flooring to expose the beams and studs. When the renovation is complete, there will be two upscale apartments. Coalter, who owns more than 100 properties all across south Cape Girardeau through Coalter & Felty Investments, is also preparing to renovate a home at 209 Lorimier St. in the same block.

"I believe in south Cape because that is the roots of this town," Coalter said. "But I have a lot more faith in our success because of the River Campus."

The River Campus is Southeast Missouri State University's new arts education and performance center at the base of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. The first performance, the musical Big River adapted from Mark Twain's works, only reinforced Coalter's confidence.

"I was seeing people walking down Lorimier and Good Hope, laughing and talking, as they went to their cars," Coalter said.

The area has a shady reputation of drugs, prostitution and violence, Coalter said. "There they were, walking in the middle of south Cape and they were not intimidated," he said. "That put me in a better mood and made me more excited than what I saw at the performance."

The changes won't be cheap and the effort can't be a solo one, Coalter added. "Everybody has to work together. It takes everybody to know it is hard to do what we are doing."

• Grant awarded: Jackson won a $220,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Missouri Department of Economic Development to assist the expansion plans of the American Railcar Industries ARI-Jackson Manufacturing plant.

The grant will help pay for the infrastructure improvements at the Jackson Industrial Park on Route PP. ARI-Jackson plans to add 22 jobs and invest at least $862,000 in private investment.

When the grant was first being sought in April, the total being requested was $420,000 to support the addition of up to 42 jobs.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen action on the larger grant amount was premature at the time, ARI manager Brian Blankenship said in October when the company received approval of a building permit application for the plant expansion.

Grants under the Industrial Infrastructure program are aimed at communities with fewer than 50,000 people and the funds must be used for public streets, water or sewer lines, engineering or the completion of other public facilities necessary to support the project.

The program is funded by federal tax dollars.

ARI-Jackson produces more than 5,000 different items at its 120,000 square-foot plant, which first opened in 1985.

n New gym: A 24-hour fitness center that opened Friday at 1131 N. Kingshighway will be the first of five franchises of a national chain in the region.

Anytime Fitness is owned by Colin Reilly of Mandleville, La., and the club manager is Jill Mills of Jackson. Reilly already owns seven franchises with the Hastings, Minn., based company which specializes in setting up entrepreneurs with gyms that provide 24-hour access through a key card system.

Along with the Cape Girar-deau location, Mills said Reilly plans to open Anytime Fitness locations in Jackson, Sikeston, Farmington and Paragould, Ark.

"I am absolutely excited," said Mills, a 31-year-old one-time college track athlete. "I think it is going to be a big hit and I want do an excellent job. I believe this area needs a 24-hour gym for entrepreneurs."

Reilly has already hired one trainer and plans on bringing on perhaps two more, Mills said. The center won't offer class-based fitness programs, but instead will focus on attracting people who want the flexibility of being able to work out when it is convenient. While there may not be staff on hand 24 hours, the company promises "state of the art security" to its members.

n Consignment auto dealer: David Kinder, formerly of Wieser Honda in Cape Girardeau, wants to sell your car.

Kinder, who is now employed as a training consultant for Chrysler dealers, opened a consignment car sales dealership on Sappington in Jackson behind Buchheit's.

Kinder said he's ready to help sell any car at any price. "In the month of November we sold an H2 Hummer in the $30,000 range all the way down to a $1,000 1988 Honda," he said.

Kinder will offer appraisal and inspection service and handle the marketing through newspaper and Internet ads for a cut of the sales price. Sellers can leave their car on the lot or keep driving it, making it available for inspection when a customer is interested.

"We answer and screen the calls that come in, work with prospective buyers and we handle all the necessary paperwork," Kinder said. The seller, he said, only has to cash the check.

n New spa: Monica McLain, a licensed massage therapist, has opened a spa at 1301 N. Kingshighway called Time Well Spent where she is offering treatments that include Swedish, deep tissue and hot stone massages as well as other options.

A Cape Girardeau native, McLain has held her massage therapist license for 4 1/2 years, and began her business after gaining experience at HealthPoint Plaza.

"I have always had that goal to grow, and I felt like the time is right and everything fell into place," she said.

Working alongside two other licensed therapists, Kim Watkins and Angela Jines, McLain accepts walk-ins and appointments. There are no set hours for Time Well Spent, but McLain said someone is usually there from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If the doors are locked, she said, there's information on the door about making an appointment.

n Hospital award: Southeast Missouri Hospital has received the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines -- Coronary Artery Disease Silver Performance Achievement award. The award is for Southeast's success in implementing a standard of cardiac care that improves treatment of hospitalized patients. Southeast won the recognition by achieving an 85 percent adherence to performance measures. Under the guidelines, patients are put on risk-reduction therapies that include cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, ACE inhibitors and beta blockers.

Rudi Keller is the business editor for the Southeast Missourian. Contact him at 335-6611, extension 126