ASSESSMENTS IMPORTANT TO MAIN STREET

Cape Girardeau was ripe to become a Main Street community, says John Bry, coordinator of the Main Street program for Columbus, Ind.

Bry is familiar with the Cape Girardeau area, having graduated from Missouri State University with a historic preservation degree.

Since then, Bry served as a Main Street manager in Southern Illinois three years before accepting the position of executive director at Columbus, a city about the size of Cape Girardeau.

"You have the downtown section near the river, the Haarig area and the upper Broadway area," Bry said of Cape Girardeau. All three of the areas and the university should be included in a Main Street district under one director.

Bry, who served as director of the historic Glenn House in downtown Cape Girardeau while he was in school here, recently completed an assessment of Cape Girardeau, designed to serve as a planning tool for the implementation of long-term revitalization and development in the city.

Bry's assessment, commissioned by Old Town Cape Inc., a group that has received Main Street Community designation from the state, points out some of the issues.

Input is included from university, chamber, city officials, merchants and residents along with pictures and comments.

Getting started is a challenge, said Bry. The problem is Cape has no single area that can be designated as the downtown area. This is because there are really three areas: The riverfront, Haarig district and upper Broadway.

Bry's report covers the strengths and weaknesses of the three areas and what he would recommend for improvements. The goal for Old Town Cape is to tie the three areas together.

The goal of the assessment, said Bry, is to offer and outline strategies and procedures to look at the entire picture of the areas involved.

Bry found during his walking survey that as many as 40 percent of first-level buildings were empty along what is described as upper Broadway.

The vacancy situation wasn't as bad in the immediate downtown area where about 95 percent of the first-floor level buildings were occupied.

Bry's assessment and business and consumer surveys by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Southeast Missouri State University give the Old Town Cape group an edge on its start in the Main Street program.

Cape Girardeau and Fayette are the latest Main Street communities in Missouri, named by the governor's office last week as the state's 13th and 14th cities to start the revitalization program.

The Cape Girardeau program encompasses an area from Water Street along North Street to West End Boulevard to Southern Expressway, to the river. This includes the river area downtown, Broadway, the Haarig area, and old St. Vincent's Seminary, site of the proposed river campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

As a Main Street community, Cape Girardeau is eligible for services and materials valued at more than $50,000 over a four-year period. They include consultation, planning workshops, market analysis and staff training.

Some of those workshops will be held in Cape Girardeau March 8 and 9, said Judith Anne Lang, a downtown merchant and chairman of the Old Town Cape group.

Sheri Stuart, a program associate with the National Main Street Center of Washington D.C.; Mark Miles, assistant director of the Historic Preservation program, Missouri Department of Natural Resources; and Scott Sewell of Eclipse Communications, Topeka, Kan.; will be in Cape Girardeau to conduct workshops on the program's four-point approach.

Four three-hour sessions will be presented to committee members of the four committees -- organization, design, promotion and economic restructuring.

"Anyone can attend" the sessions, said Lang, adding that people can contact her at 339-1766.

Sessions will be held at 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 6:30 on March 8, and at 8 a.m. on March 9.

"These seminars will give an overview of what we are all about," said Lang.

The majority of shoppers who visit in the Cape Girardeau retail market -- 77 percent -- visit the downtown area to dine at a variety of eating places. Some 53 percent of the downtown area visitors shop, 60 percent of the customers surveyed described the shopping as "fair," not enough stores and inconvenient parking.

However, attitudes about shopping downtown were consistent on a couple of points friendliness of sales people and a safe environment for shopping during surveys of customers and merchants by the community and economic development group of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Negatives included parking, traffic flow, shopping hours, merchandise selection and variety of stores.

These were among findings of business and customer surveys and a focus group. The survey included participants from businesses at West Park Mall, Town Plaza Shopping Center and the downtown.

One of the surveys was conducted by Southeast Missouri State University's department of marketing under the direction of associate professor Judy A. Wiles.

The surveys were commissioned by the Cape Girardeau Community Pride Coalition and were a first step toward a goal of establishing a Main Street Program. Although the surveys were completely different, they all arrived at some of the same conclusions.

Downtown customers were optimistic about the future of downtown, said Julie Fesenmaier of the Laboratory for Community and Economic Development at the University of Illinois.

"About half of those responding believe business conditions have improved downtown over the past five years, and 66 percent believe conditions will continue to improve," she said.

The Southeast survey showed more than 56 percent of customer respondents were in favor of Sunday hours (some downtown merchants close Sunday).

Although 73 percent of businesses agree they should remain open at least one evening a week, only 59 percent indicated they were willing to open one night.

Some wishes for downtown? A bookstore, chain retail outlet and a men's clothing store.

The survey indicated visitors liked the annual Riverfest, Music Fest and Christmas Parade. Eighty-one percent of the survey participants say they have attended the local festivals and music fest, and more than 70 percent indicated they attended the Christmas Parade.