BUSINESS BUILDING BOOMS FOR THE YEAR

D&K Wholesale Drug Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, will start making shipments from its Cape Girardeau facility, 1823 Rust Ave. next week.

Sam's Club will open a 114,000-square foot facility in Cape West Business Park, adjacent to the Wal-Mart Supercenter, in early spring.

Wehrenberg Theatres is looking to open at least a portion of its new 14-cine theater in Cape West Business Park in May.

Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield, currently conducting an employee training session at West Park Office Building on Silver Springs Road will start a new class in early January in its new quarters at 471 Siemers St.

Last week was moving week for D&K, which is closing its operation in Cairo, Ill.

The move to larger quarters at Cape Girardeau will result in an additional 40 jobs for the company. The Cairo Division currently employs more than 100 workers.

D & K Wholesale Drug is a publicly-owned wholesale drug distributor based in St. Louis. The company serves independent and retail chain pharmacies, hospitals, managed care facilities and other customers in 17 states throughout the Midwest and Mid-South.

D&K was founded in Cairo in 1965 as Delta Wholesale Drug Inc. The company merged with the Kelly Wholesale Drug Co. in 1987 and became D&K Wholesale Drug Inc.

D & K also has a warehouse in Lexington, Ky.

Sam's Warehouse has been an on-again, off-again proposition for Cape Girardeau.

It was in September of 1992 that Sam's Club officials announced plans to build a 134,000-square-foot warehouse adjacent to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cape West Business Center near the Route K-Siemers Drive intersection.

A year later, the plans were placed on hold, with an expected 1994 start on a smaller scale, at 114,000 square feet. Those plans were also placed on hold.

Two years later, Sam's Warehouse construction is now almost complete, said Keith Morris, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville, Ark. The $2.9 million facility, located between Wal-Mart and Lowe's Home Center, is scheduled for an early spring opening.

Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield will start moving into its new customer service center, 471 Siemers, Jan. 1.

"That's a little ahead of schedule," said Ed Tenholder, vice president of client services.

A Blue Cross Blue Shield training session is currently in program for 68 new employees.

"We'll start a new training class Jan. 6, at the new facility," said Tenholder. "The new class will consist of more than 150."

The new center will employ more than 200.

Wehrenberg Theatres Inc., which has embarked on some aggressive plans is looking to May opening of a portion of its 14-plex theater.

Current expansion plans, which include new theaters or expansions of existing facilities at Springfield, Mo., St. Louis, O'Fallon, Ill., and Cape Girardeau, will bring Wehrenberg Theaters to well over 500 screens over the next two years.

One of the largest commercial construction contracts this year is now in evidence at Lone Star Industries Inc. in Cape Girardeau.

The $7.5 million project consists of three new 120-foot tall clinker silos, in the 2500 block of South Sprigg, which will provide storage for 40,000 tons of clinker, will be operational next year.

"The silos have been poured and erected," said Norris Johnson, Norris Johnson, manager at the Cape Girardeau Lone Star plant.