Cape Girardeau mayor: City, county examining purchase of federal courthouse in joint venture

City and county officials are taking preliminary steps that could culminate in joint ownership of the former federal building that would serve as both a new Cape Girardeau City Hall as well as space to relocate certain county offices from the Common Pleas Courthouse.

But there are still questions -- how much would the 42,000-square-foot building at 339 Broadway cost and where would people park?

"We have been talking about it since January," Mayor Harry Rediger said. "We are very interested in it. I'm looking forward to going ahead with it. I'm confident we'll be able to work something out."

The Cape Girardeau City Council on Monday is set authorize spending $33,885 to hire Cape Girardeau architect Phillip B. Smith to evaluate the building and assess space to see if it could meet all the city's needs.

Rediger said council members took a tour of the federal building a couple of weeks ago and meetings have been held with the Cape Girardeau County Commission. While nothing has been finalized, Rediger said, there is some level of interest by both governmental bodies.

Rediger hopes the county and the city can approach the General Services Administration by the end of April, which the GSA has set as a deadline, with some sort of offer. Rediger declined to comment about what he thought the building or the renovations would cost.

"I think it's a government building," Rediger said. "We are not very functional at the current city hall. It's not ADA-compliant, and we're out of space in a couple of areas. That, to me, isn't the future footprint of city government for our growing needs."

Rediger said he understands parking is limited at the federal building but that they are looking at options. One option, he said, is a parking garage, though at first blush it seems financially unfeasible. More likely, he said, is the option to convert areas around the federal building into parking areas.

"It's an issue we're going to have to solve," Rediger said. "It's a question of access and number of parking places, so we're not there yet, but we're looking."

After the architect's evaluation, documents will be prepared to take to the GSA with an offer, Rediger said.

Commissioners said they were interested in the possibility of a joint venture, but they spoke in more guarded terms.

"Our job is to look at what makes the most sense and we're still hashing that out at this point," Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy said. "Clearly, it's something we're looking into."

Commissioner Jay Purcell said he still thinks the county would be better served by one courthouse instead of having offices in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Purcell said he would be interested in a joint venture with the city, but only if it was agreed that the county would get back its entire investment should it decide to build a new courthouse in Jackson that would house all county offices.

Rediger and Purcell both said the city had agreed to that in principle.

Purcell said that in his mind the "jury's still out" as to how much sense a joint venture makes. He worries that if the county buys the federal building with the city, then it will cause people to think a new courthouse isn't needed.

"Part of me has some reservation," Purcell said. "I don't want us to commit to something that may cause people to be complacent and say 'Let's keep things the way they are.' I still think we would see some substantial savings if we only had to operate one courthouse."

One holdup for that is a law requiring the county to have courthouses in Jackson and Cape Girardeau. But Rep. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, filed a bill earlier this year to change that law. Purcell said that bill has made it to the rules committee.

smoyers@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

339 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO