Broadway project pushed back a month; some grieve loss of parking

The start of construction on the $3.25 million Broadway corridor project has been delayed by about a month to give the St. Louis consultants time to implement traffic signal cameras and new stormwater pipes into the plan.

The city expanded the work to include those items that were not in the original scope of the project, said city engineer Casey Brunke. But she noted the enhancements are still expected to be completed by the end of the year to coincide with the opening of Isle of Capri's new $125 million casino.

"We've been pushed back just a little bit," Brunke said.

Broadway west from Lorimier in Cape Girardeau. (Kit Doyle)

The work will likely begin in March instead of next month, she said.

City officials thought the intersection at Sprigg Street and Broadway already had traffic signal cameras to sense traffic and change the light like many already do, but they recently learned this one doesn't, Brunke said.

And while the project that runs from Pacific to Water streets wasn't expected to make Broadway's stormwater problem worse, Brunke said the city decided to make the improvements now so the new streetscape wouldn't have to be torn up later.

The St. Louis engineering firm Horner & Shifrin Inc. is expected to have the new plans back to the city for review by the end of the month, she said. Finalizing them and putting them out to bid will take a few weeks, she said. She said they hope to give a contractor the notice to proceed in March.

Additional cost estimates would not be available until the company submits its revised plans, Brunke said.

The project, paid for by voter-approved Transportation Trust Fund dollars, includes street resurfacing, sidewalk replacement and gutter improvements. A streetscape portion is intended to create a "pedestrian promenade" with seating areas, trees, pavers and 15-foot-wide sidewalks on the north side of the street.

The wider sidewalks call for removing dozens of parking spaces on the north side of the street for the length of the project. The loss of those spaces has some property owners worried about where their tenants and customers are going to park.

Cape Girardeau developer Kenny Pincksten, for example, is rehabbing the old Vasterling Building at the corner of Broadway and Sprigg Street. He plans to convert the building into a mix of commercial and residential use.

While he thinks the new streetscape will be "beautiful," he knows the lack of parking is going to create a hardship for his new tenants.

He even abandoned plans to rehab another building he owns at 625 Broadway because it has no off-street parking and there is only one space in front of the building. He had hoped to fix it up and lease it for commercial use. Now, he's just boarded it up.

"I know that nobody's going to make an investment in retail business on Broadway if their customers have no access," Pincksten said.

Bob Bohnsack owns five buildings on Broadway along the length of the project and he agreed. One of his buildings is in the 800 block of Broadway, and he has a parking lot behind it. This building is on the same block as the Esquire Theater and a coffee shop, he said.

"They will have nowhere to park except probably my private parking lot," Bohnsack said. "I don't mind sharing, but I don't think people who have private parking lots should be expected to forfeit parking meant for their own tenants."

But city officials and downtown economic development organizations are aware of the perception that parking is a problem on Broadway, said assistant city manager Heather Brooks. If there were no vacant buildings on Broadway, parking would no doubt be a problem, she said.

The city has been encouraging property owners to look at shared use with parking lots that are behind their properties, she said.

"If people could partner together," she said, "that would solve some of their needs."

They are also looking at ways to entice private parking lot owners to allow public parking, she said.

Old Town Cape executive director Marla Mills said it's understandable that there's concern about parking. But she added that the project isn't "in the middle of a corn field, so we can't make it perfect from the start."

Mills doesn't expect the project to create a parking problem immediately, she said, and that the city, chamber and Old Town Cape can work to find a solution as Broadway buildings begin to fill up -- whether it's the former federal building or from interested investors looking to capitalize on the one million new visitors the casino is expected to draw each year.

"There's space for us to address the parking problem," she said. "What there isn't now is money for it."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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Broadway and Pacific Street, Cape Girardeau, MO

Broadway and Water Street, Cape Girardeau, MO