BOYD GAMING UNVEILS CAPE PLAN

Cape Girardeau would cash in on riverboat gambling under a Boyd Gaming Corp. development plan.

In its first year of operation, Boyd would pay out nearly $1.7 million combined to Cape Girardeau city, the local school district and two civic groups if the gambling venture attracts 860,000 customers as envisioned.

The city would receive nearly $1 million of that.

In return, Boyd wants the city to give it exclusive, riverboat gambling rights for the next 15 years.

Mayor Al Spradling III said state law only requires cities to give exclusive rights for three years.

Spradling said the payments don't include the estimated $560,000 in property tax revenue that would be generated annually.

Boyd proposes paying $100,000 a year to the city in the form of a grant, with the first payment totaling $500,000 and constituting the first five years of payments.

The city also would receive 55 cents for each customer admitted to the casino in the previous fiscal year.

At 860,000 customers a year, the city stands to receive $473,000 annually.

The Cape Girardeau public schools would receive an estimated $172,000 annually at 20 cents an admission.

Boyd would make a single payment of $500,000 to the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation for the purchase and renovation of old St. Vincent's seminary. The foundation plans to turn it into a museum and Civil War center.

The gambling firm would also pay $25,000 a year for five years to the local historical association.

The Las Vegas-based company late last month submitted a draft of a development agreement to city officials.

The city staff is negotiating with Boyd over the agreement's final wording. Boyd officials couldn't be reached for comment.

Spradling said some changes may be made to the proposed contract. The City Council may approve the agreement later this month.

The document spells out what Boyd will do in return for permission to dock a riverboat casino in an area between Sloan's Creek and the Broadway floodgate.

Boyd needs a development plan in place before it can apply for a state gambling license.

Spradling said the development plan moves the city closer to having a casino. Even so, he doesn't expect a riverboat casino to open in Cape Girardeau before 1997.

Under the contract, Boyd would renovate the downtown's Buckner-Ragsdale building for dining and lounge facilities, relocate the old-fashioned clock at Main and Themis to an as yet unnamed site and purchase a fire-rescue boat.

The company would make a number of water, sewer and street improvements in the downtown area. The improvements would meet city specifications.

It is uncertain when those improvements would be made, but City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said he expects the major improvements to be in place before any floating casino opens.

Both Spradling and Fischer said the development plan builds on preliminary agreements reached with Boyd in March 1994.

"There have not been any significant changes in the situation," Spradling said. "I think it is still a good deal for the city."