cape hub.1a

Starting from the mid-sized city of Cape Girardeau, population 35,349, a Sunday afternoon drive to any of Southeast Missouri's other counties will tell the story.

Take a drive through the curves and hills of Bollinger County and you'll see clusters of clear creeks, numerous pastures and old barns. But you won't find a shopping mall or a movie theater.

Travel south on Highway 25 in Scott and Stoddard counties and you'll see steep cliffs that appear misplaced among the fertile corn fields. But you won't find a hospital or a four-year university.

Along these rural roads and in the small towns, you'll find hundreds of thousands of people who depend on Cape Girardeau. And Cape Girardeau depends on them, too.

Most local business and economic leaders say there are between 80,000 and 100,000 people in Cape Girardeau on any given day. If that number is correct, then more than half of the people working and shopping here are from somewhere else.

Even if that number is lower than 80,000 -- the premise of Dr. Bruce Domazlicky, director of the center for economic and business research at Southeast Missouri State University -- it is clear Cape Girardeau is not just a river town. It's a regional hub.

Numbers game

Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association, said Cape Girardeau generally serves 300,000 people in a 40-mile radius.

The state government calculates commuting patterns only in counties, not cities, which is one reason why only guesses can be made about how many people visit Cape Girardeau daily.

"It all depends on who you ask," said John Mehner, Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce president.

Mehner believes the number is closer to 80,000 on weekdays and may reach as high as 100,000 on some busy weekends.

But Domazlicky hesitates to put the daily number as high as 80,000.

"I'd be very skeptical of that figure," he said. "In the total county, conceivably. But I think putting an actual number on it would be very difficult to do. Those types of numbers are very tough unless you do a survey, and those can be expensive."

Whatever the number is, the daytime population of the city is likely at least double the amount that's posted on the city- limit sign.

And there's no debating that the people coming into Cape Girardeau help keep it running.

Based on the average personal income of Cape Girardeau County residents and an economic generalization that 40 percent of all income is spent on retail, Domazlicky estimates that $300-400 million retail dollars are pumped into the county from outside sources.

That number could be higher, however, as the county is No. 1 in the state in sales per capita. Last year, Cape Girardeau did $1.05 billion worth of retail business.

Even if the city received only $200 million of the county's estimated $300-400 million in outside sales, that would still give $4 million straight to the city, based on a 2 percent sales tax.

That revenue is coming from people like A.J. Begley, 17.

Begley lives in Delta, Mo., a 25-minute car drive from Cape Girardeau.

He does a little bit of everything in Cape Girardeau, including getting his hair cut. There are no barber shops in Delta.

"Of course, I've got to bring my girlfriend up here to eat and go to the movies," he said as he checked out one of the sprint cars on display at the West Park Mall.

There aren't many eating choices in Delta, either.

"There's Quickmart and that's it," said Begley's friend, Daniel Cook.

Commuting to work

People travel to Cape Girardeau for scores of reasons, but perhaps the most important one, area leaders say, is to work.

Based on the 51,000 jobs that the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis says there are in Cape Girardeau County and on the 37,000 people that work here, it can be deduced that 18,000 people from outside the county commute to this county to work, Domazlicky said. About 10 percent of the county's workers have jobs outside the county.

According to a 1990 study conducted by the Department of Economic Development, Cape Girardeau and Cole are the only counties in Missouri that have more than 20 percent of their workforce coming in to work and less than 10 percent going out. Like Cape Girardeau, Jefferson City is a hub for Cole County and mid-Missouri.

And a solid workforce is one of the first things that retailers and industry look for when the locate here, according to Tom Kelsey, a real estate agent with Lorimont Place Ltd.

"Cape Girardeau has certainly demonstrated that it has that," Kelsey said.

Abby Stratman, 37, of Marble Hill, Mo., commutes 30 miles -- a 45-minute drive -- from Marble Hill to work in Cape Girardeau. She is employed at clothier Thorngate Ltd.

Stratman said a big reason she commutes to Cape Girardeau is because there are very limited work options in Marble Hill.

"It would've been a lot easier to work in Marble Hill than to drive so far every day," she said. "But you get used to it. The only time you dread the drive is when there is ice on the roads."

Higher education draw

Besides work, area economic leaders point to three main reasons why Cape Girardeau is a regional hub: educational opportunities, medical facilities and retail diversity.

This semester at Southeast Missouri State University, 4,603 students who are not residents of Cape Girardeau commute to the school. There are 8,971 students attending the school this semester.

Plus, the university draws crowds during the year for various events and it employs roughly 1,000.

"When people look to relocate facilities, they want to make sure there is a good educational base and we've got that here," Mehner said. "You've got choices in public and parochial schools, you've got a career and technology center and a four-year school. The university is a big player and a big boost to the region."

Medical facilities are also a major factor.

It is unusual for a city the size of Cape Girardeau to have two established hospitals like Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center, which offer more services than any others between St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn.

In addition to the hospitals, there is Doctors Park and other independent medical offices. Nearly 400 doctors and 900 nurses working in Cape Girardeau.

"For the specialties in Cape, you'd have to go a long way to find somewhere else," said Tom Tucker, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission.

Retail opportunities

Stratman said she does her grocery shopping Cape Girardeau because she finds better bargains here than in Marble Hill.

Lisa Russell, 42, shops in Cape Girardeau because her hometown of Jackson lacks variety.

"Basically, the only thing we have in Jackson is grocery stores," she said. "I come here to shop at the mall. But I work in Cape too, so that's another reason I do most of my shopping here."

And as the years go by, shoppers like Russell are getting more and more variety.

The opening of West Park Mall in 1981 initiated the commercial development on the west side of Cape Girardeau. What was nothing but farmland 20 years ago is now the site of rush-hour traffic jams. Restaurants, retail outlets, auto dealerships and a large movie theater are among the businesses that crowd the landscape.

"One thing that's happening is that success breeds success," said Kelsey. "One franchise comes in and then someone in the same type of business comes in and says 'Hey, we need to look at that market.'"

Larry Westrich, vice president of Drury Southwest Inc., a company that leases much of the property on the west side of town, said that large franchise businesses are increasingly locating in mid-sized cities.

"All these restaurants and retail stores have been in high-growth modes and they've totally saturated the larger markets," he said. "What they're saying is that they've found a niche. The Ruby Tuesdays, the Logans, the Red Lobsters have found they can make just as much money here."

More to come

Though the growth continues, area leaders still seem hungry for more growth.

A new public high school will open next fall. The university and the city have plans to renovate the old St. Vincent's Seminary near the river and transform it into a performing arts center.

Cape Girardeau city officials have united with Jackson's government to push for certain state highway projects.

City leaders have met with officials from Paducah, Ky., to discuss a possible new east-west highway through Southeast Missouri.

And the chamber, along with the industrial recruitment association, keep trying to lure businesses -- and in the end, more people -- to Cape Girardeau.

"We always want continued expansion in all factors," Mehner said. "We're never satisfied."

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127