BUSINESS SCENE IN REGION BECOMES A BUSY ONE

A lot of businesses open and lot close.

The upside of this statement is the fact that the region usually posts net gains of businesses, industries and employment.

Each year hundreds of new businesses open in Southeast Missouri. They range from retail and wholesale operations to manufacturing and industrial plants.

"The business scene throughout the area is a busy one, and that's a good economic indicator," said Ron Steele, regional economic development planner for the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission.

New businesses, expansion of existing ones and business closings are common occurrences, said Steele, who keeps tabs on business openings and closings in the commission's seven counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Iron, Madison, Perry, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve.

The current economic scene is active, agreed Leon Steinbrueck, acting executive director of the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission. Six counties are included in the Bootheel group: Scott, Stoddard, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Dunklin.

Steele, Steinbrueck and others involved in keeping tabs on business activity say business growth is continuing in Southeast Missouri.

During the first six months of 1994, almost 100 new-business permits were issued by the Cape Girardeau Finance Department. Half that many closings were reported.

That's about par for the city. In 1993, 183 business permits were issued and 165 closed for a net gain of 18.

A total of about 150 business starts were reported throughout Southeast Missouri during the first six months of 1994, and more than 20 expansions were announced. A total of 20 closings were reported, for a net gain of about 130.

This compares to 300 new business starts for the complete year of 1993, with 25 expansions and 175 closings.

Jobs were the big winner of first-half 1994 announcements.

More than 1,111 full- and part-time jobs will be realized in the seven-county SEMO Regional Planning Commission area.

The commission reported 32 new businesses during the second quarter of 1994, which ended June 30. Five expansions and six closings were reported. This tabulates into 160 full- and part-time jobs. More than half of the new openings were in Cape Girardeau. They included Red Lobster restaurant, which employs more than 100 people, and Drury Suites Hotel, which employs more than 20.

Two new restaurants have opened recently in Cape Girardeau. The latest to open was Pizza Inn in the 3300 block of Gordonville Road. Pizza Inn held its pizza-cutting last week. The week before Sonic Drive In opened at 2126 Broadway.

A new Shell service station and convenience store opened last week in Cape West Business Park. Construction is under way on a McDonald's restaurant. It will be operated by Cape Girardeau businessman Jerry Davis, who has McDonald restaurants here and at Jackson, Sikeston and Charleston.

Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems recently opened a sales and service center at 3363 Gordonville Road and held a weeklong grand opening celebration last week.

Other construction projects on the board for the Cape Girardeau area include two hotels, a couple of restaurants, an office building, and other unannounced projects.

The biggest job gains in the Southeast Missouri area will be in manufacturing.

Huffy Corp., headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, will employ up to 500 people at its new bicycle manufacturing facility in Farmington. The company is expected to be in operation by Oct. 1. Stark Truss Co. Inc., which builds trusses, is building a facility at Perryville. It will employ eight to 10 people initially, with increases to 40 to 50 people.

Texberry Container Corp., a Houston-based manufacturer and distributor of plastic bottles ranging from two ounces to two-and-a-half gallons, announced it will establish a plant in Nash Road Industrial Park. The company leased 70,000 square feet in the old Florsheim shoe warehouse building there, and will employ up to a dozen people, said D. Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association.

To the south, the big manufacturing announcement was made by Briggs & Stratton Corp., a small-engine maker headquartered in Wisconsin. Plant officials at Poplar Bluff and Murray, Ky., revealed plans for more than $40 million in expansions, new equipment and retooling, and up to 230 new jobs.

A total of $23 million will be spent over the next two years for a 50,000-square-foot expansion at Poplar Bluff, creating at least 70 new jobs. An $18 million renovation and retooling project at Murray will result in about 160 additional hires.

More than 50 new jobs will be created at Caruthersville in Pemiscot County with the relocation and expansion of Container Reconditioning Inc. (CRI) from the Dyersburg, Tenn. area.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development has approved a $183,000 grant for Caruthersville to be used for street and sewer improvement necessary to relocate CRI, which will invest more than $300,000 in the new facility. CRI provides beverage-tank repair and reconditioning services. The company also recycles the used containers and sells them through the U.S. and abroad.

Some Caruthersville workers are already employed at CRI in Dyersburg.

The economic outlook is good in the Bootheel.

Steinbrueck reported during a recent Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission meeting that 15 economic development projects were under way in the Bootheel area.

"We're kind of swamped right now," said Steinbrueck. "But that's good because about everything we're working on is going to create jobs."

AgCat Corp. has announced plans to locate at Malden's airport industrial park. The industry, which builds crop dusting planes, will employ about 60 people.

Kennett has received approval of a $385,000 infrastructure grant for water, sewer, electricity and streets for its industrial park, which will serve two new industries to be announced.

Steinbrueck said Chaffee has applied for an infrastructure grant of $75,000 to be used for improvements to its industrial park.